RARE Sonny and Cher

Wow! I finally found A Woman's Story on youtube! Only heard Marc Almond's cover before. What a great song and what a grandiose timeless Phil Spector production!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87-Ua7sVjig

 

Little known fact: there are two different versions of this song....with one of them being slightly longer and containing extra vocals by Cher.

 

There's only one true version of A Woman's Story. It's only ever been on a 45 and any other version you've heard would have to be some fan remix. The playing times listed on both sides of the 45 are shorter than the actual running times of the songs. Maybe this is what you're referring to. Spector was famous for doing this to try and coax DJs into playing songs they otherwise wouldn't if they thought they ran too long.

 

No actually the version that appears on a Phil Spector LP released only in the UK titled '74/79' is longer than the 45 version. I wouldn't have normally noticed this had it been any other singer because it is only slightly longer but because I have collected specifically on Cher for the past 15 years I noticed right away that it wasn't on my 45.

 

So what specifically are the extra vocals then? Or is it just the music fade that's slightly longer? I've been collecting Cher since 1976 and have never heard of this.

I had the Nilsson/Cher duet on a UK Spector album at one time, and the 45 version actually had a longer fade than that LP version.

 

Newly posted on You Tube, their crazy San Remo '67 performance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyXExizvfTU

 

Is it true that the RCA Record Club put out a version of Sonny Bono's Laugh at Me that has an alternate vocal? A sample uploaded here:

http://www.4shared.com/account/file...nny_Bono_-_Laugh_at_Me__alternate_vocal_.html

 

Not 100% sure, but it sounds the same as the regular version to me.

 

Thanks for listening. Somebody labeled the file as an alternate version, but I don't have a handy copy to compare it with.

 

The vocals sound clearer in your version, but I just listened to the regular version and it's the same take.

There's a blog site that claims to be posting alternate versions of Cher's mid-70s Phil Spector produced songs also, and they're exactly the same as the regular versions. I don't know who these people think they're fooling......unless they're truly clueless.

 

I did and it is. Listen to the (mono) take on Sonny & Cher compilation cd's, it's a different vocal. Perhaps it is the difference between the single and the LP version, but there are definitely two vocals out there and the one I posted was the one I was under the impression was the rarer one of the two. Perhaps the single version was the rare one as it might have been supplanted by the LP version as many songs back then were.

But there's definitely two vocal versions. I own em both.

 

I just listened to the mono Look At Us album version (which may have been the single mix) and it has different lyrics, compared to the (stereo) RCA Record Club version, here:

"It ain't me that's goin' anywhere" (instead of 'any place')
and it's sung differently...

That seems to be the only lyric difference...though some of the singing sounds a bit different in manner or tone everything else seems to match up, so it may not have been an entirely different vocal take but an edit of some sort.

As the Look AT Us album version is mono it may be the single that is the rarer of the two then.

 

There is a different version of A Woman's Story that exists...so once I get my records back from my buddy who's dropping them for me...I will post samples to once and for all end that debate

 

Laugh At Me is not on the Look At Us album. I've listened numerous times now to every version of the song that I have.......Wondrous World Of Sonny & Cher mono CD and mono LP, Sonny & Cher's Greatest Hits Atco stereo vinyl, The Best Of Sonny & Cher Atco mono vinyl and they're all exactly the same as the version in post #82. Even the single version is on You Tube and it's also the same vocal.

There is a live version on Sonny & Cher Live from 1971 where he does say "It ain't me that's goin' anywhere" instead of "anyplace".

Maybe the stereo vinyl version of the Wondrous World Of Sonny & Cher album has a different vocal?


cherbette: I hope to be proven wrong actually, cuz I'd love to hear an alternate version of A Woman's Story after all these years!

 

Okay, here's a UK single version where he says "anywhere" instead of "anyplace". That sounds like just about the only difference in the vocal take.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik2fsojW84c


I just remembered there's also 2 different vocal take versions of Sonny & Cher's song, But You're Mine. The details of where, what escape me at the moment...

 

Ah yes, it's come to me now.

In the stereo version of the song, Cher sings the line "it ain't us that's gonna lose this fight", and in the mono version Sonny sings that line. The vocal trade-off part at the end of the song is also different on both versions.

 

Oh good, something else to look for. Yeah, I don't know where the 'anywhere' line came from, but I knew there was an alt vocal out there somewhere. Obviously I was wrong about it being on the RCA Club vinyl though. That must be the offical, widely spread version.

Always nice to learn.

 

Ooooh I need to find this one. Need to find the catalogue numbers and seek 'em out. Are you speaking of the mono single vs the stereo single of "But You're Mine" or the mono LP vs the Stereo LP? There are also two different French recordings of "But You're Mine". One being titled "Mais Tu Es À Moi" and the other is "Je M'en Balance Car Je T'aime".

 

OK, here's another one. It's marked in my collection as a Sonny & Cher rarity but I'm not sure if it really is or not:

Sample of "It's the Little Things" - Sonny & Cher (long mono version 3:05)

 

All I know for sure is that the mono 'Wondrous World Of' LP & CD version has Sonny singing that one line, and the version on my Atco stereo double-LP of Sonny & Cher's Greatest Hits has Cher singing the line, and also different ad-lib vocals at the end of the song.

 

This version is edited, right after "kiss my lips and my mind starts blowin". There's another version that's about 25 seconds longer on S&C's Atco Greatest Hits LP, and in mono on Atco's Best Of S&C LP. Unfortunately, the edited version appears most often on compilations, as well as the Good Times soundtrack. Don't think the longer/full version has appeared on CD.

 

I did notice that Love is Strange has finally made it onto cd put out by Rhino Flashback titled "Classics. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how that particular track sounds dynamically...I couldn't imagine them having put any effort into this compilation whatsoever so I fear the quality will be less than stellar.

 

One of the most drastic differences in Sonny and Cher records is the Atco version of "It's Gonna Rain" and the RCA "Wild on the Beach Original Soundtrack" version. The RCA version has tons of overlapped echo vocals and its confusing to listen to when you know the Atco version so well. Be sure to check this one out.

 

Oh yes, very true. I have that strange version on a CD-R somewhere. It even has some slightly different vocals in it if I remember correctly.

 

Can any one here tell me which pressing of the Cher album 'All I Really Want To Do' from 1965 on vinyl sounds the best. The UK on Liberty? The US on Imperial? Surely it was pressed in Japan etc as well...