Believe (Cher album)
Released October 22, 1998
Recorded June–August 1998
Studio Dreamhouse Studios, London
Soundworks Studios, New York
Length 43:59
Label
Wea Warner Bros.
Producer
Mark Taylor Brian Rawling Junior Vasquez Todd Terry Rob Dickins (executive producer)
Believe is the twenty-second studio album by American singer-actress Cher, first released on October 22, 1998 by WEA and distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Records. Following the failure of her previous studio album It’s a Man’s World, her record company encouraged her to return to the studio to pursue a new musical direction. Recording took place over the summer at the Dreamhouse Studios in London and the Soundworks Studios in New York under the guidance of English producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling. The album was dedicated to her ex-husband Sonny Bono, who died earlier that year.
Believe represents a complete musical departure from her previous works, consisting of dance-pop and Eurodance oriented styles, yet it includes a broader range of various musical genres such as techno, house, disco and Latin[citation needed] while its lyrical topics include freedom, individualism and relationships. The album features some of the new technology of the time, like the usage of Auto-tune, which would eventually become known as the “Cher effect”. Upon release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics, who commended Cher’s vocal performance, while others criticized the high amount of vocoder and its overall production. It won one Grammy for “Best Dance Recording” from a total of three nominations.
Commercially, Believe proved to be extremely successful, peaking at number four on the Billboard 200 and was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies across the United States. The record reached the peak position in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and Portugal, and charted within’ the top ten in France, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and several other international territories.
Four singles were released from the album. The first single, “Believe”, became one of the biggest-selling singles ever by topping the charts in a total of 23 countries and has sold more than 10 million copies. “Strong Enough” was released as the second single from the album, being less successful than Believe, especially in the US and UK, peaking at numbers 57 and 5, respectively. “All or Nothing” and “Dov’è l’amore” were released as the third and fourth singles respectively, both becoming moderately successful. In order to support Believe, Cher embarked on her sixth concert tour entitled the Do You Believe? Tour which became one of the highest grossing tour ever for a female artist at that time.
After the poorly received previous record It’s a Man’s World (1995), head of label Warner Music UK, Rob Dickins, suggested that Cher recorded a dance album so that could appeal to her gay audience. However, Cher said she was not interested in dance music anymore because she thought it was not a genre with “real songs”, leaving Dickins with the option of convincing her otherwise. At Warner’s London office, Dickins bumped into songwriter Brian Higgins, who was asked to pitch songs for a Cher album. Three days later, a tape with sixteen of Higgins’s songs arrived. “I lay on my bed and put the tape on and listened to every song. The ninth song was ‘Believe’. I thought: ‘Cher could do this chorus, especially the lyrics, with her private life the way it is. She’s gone through all these things”, Dickins said. When Dickins asked the songwriter to complete “Believe”, he comes in with a “terrible” song, and gives the song to other producers.
Cher began working on Believe in the summer of 1998 in London, meeting with producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, who had previously worked with Dickins; additional producers included Todd Terry (“Taxi Taxi”) and Junior Vasquez (who had originally worked on “Dov’è L’Amore”, but when he sent back his version from New York, it was rejected by Dickens, who decided instead to give the production of the track to Taylor and Rawling as well). Cher worked also with long-time collaborator Diane Warren (who wrote “Takin’ Back My Heart”) and covered two songs: “The Power” (Amy Grant) and “Love Is the Groove” (Betsy Cook). Furthermore, she decided to introduce a remix form of her 1988 single “We All Sleep Alone” from her 1987 Cher album.
The “Believe” single was originally written only by Brian Higgins, Matt Gray, Stuart McLennen and Tim Powell, and circulated at Warner Bros. as an unwanted demo for months. Mark Taylor said, “Everyone loved the chorus but not the rest of the song; As we were already writing other songs for Cher, Rob asked us if we could sort it out. Two of our writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry, got involved and eventually came up with a complete song that Rob and Cher were happy with.
Grammy Award for “Best Dance Recording”. Throughout 1999 and 2000 Cher was nominated for, and won, many other awards for the album, including a Billboard Music Award for “Female Vocalist of the Year”.
Track listing
Believe – Standard edition
1. “Believe”
Brian Higgins Stuart McLennen Paul Barry Steven Torch Matthew Gray Timothy Powell
Mark Taylor Brian Rawling
3:59
2. “The Power”
Tommy Simms Judson Spence
Junior Vasquez
3:56
3. “Runaway”
Taylor Barry
Taylor Rawling
4:46
4. “All or Nothing”
Taylor Barry
Taylor Rawling
3:57
5. “Strong Enough”
Taylor Barry
Taylor Rawling
3:44
6. “Dov’è l’amore”
Taylor Barry
Taylor Rawling
4:18
7. “Takin’ Back My Heart”
Diane Warren
Taylor Rawling
4:32
8. “Taxi Taxi”
Todd Terry Mark Jordan
Terry
5:04
9. “Love Is the Groove”
Betsy Cook Bruce Woolley
Terry
4:31
10. “We All Sleep Alone” (Todd Terry remix)
Desmond Child Jon Bon Jovi Richie Sambora
Terry
5:10
Total length: 43:59
Believe – Japanese/Australasian bonus track edition
Personnel
Adapted from Allmusic.
Tracy Ackerman – background vocals
Chris Anderson – piano
Ryan Art – design
Kevyn Aucoin – make-up
Paul Barry – composer, background vocals
Jeffrey Bernstein – programming
Winston Blissett – bass
Jon Bon Jovi – composer, producer
Johan Brunkvist – keyboards
Colleen Callaghan – hair stylist
Cher – primary artist
Desmond Child – composer, producer
Betsy Cook – composer
Rob Dickins – executive producer
Ada Dyer – background vocals
Humberto Gatica – mixing
Marc Goodman – engineer
Marlon Graves – guitar
Matthias Heilbronn – editing, programming
Brian Higgins – composer
Sylvia Mason-James – background vocals
Mark Jordan – composer
Bill Klatt – engineer
Michael Lavine – photography
Eddie Martinez – guitar
P. Dennis Mitchell – mixing
Adam Phillips – guitar
Timothy Powell – composer
Brian Rawling – producer
Antoinette Roberson – background vocals
Tom Salta – keyboards, programming
Richie Sambora – composer, producer
Tommy Sims – composer
Robin Smith – string arrangements
Judson Spence – composer
Hamish Stewart – background vocals
Jeff Taylor – additional production, laughs, production engineer, remixing
Mark Taylor – composer, guitar, keyboards, mixing, producer, programming, string arrangements
Todd Terry – composer, producer
Junior Vasquez – producer
Diane Warren – composer
Audrey Wheeler – background vocals
James Williams – background vocals
Bruce Woolley – composer
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