CSPC: Cher Popularity Analysis

Original Album Sales – Comments

Sonny & Cher Albums

1965 Look At Us – 1,300,000
1966 The Wondrous World of Sonny & Cher – 250,000
1967 In Case You’re in Love – 250,000
1967 Good Times – 125,000
1972 All I Ever Need Is You – 700,000
1973 Mama Was a Rock and Roll Singer, Papa Used to Write All Her Songs – 75,000

Cher solo Albums

1965 All I Really Want to Do – 450,000
1966 The Sonny Side of Cher – 325,000
1966 Cher – 250,000
1967 With Love, Cher – 250,000
1968 Backstage – 100,000
1969 3614 Jackson Highway – 100,000
1971 Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves – 1,000,000
1972 Foxy Lady – 375,000
1973 Bittersweet White Light – 100,000
1973 Half-Breed – 600,000
1974 Dark Lady – 300,000
1975 Stars – 125,000
1976 I’d Rather Believe in You – 75,000
1977 Cherished – 50,000
1977 Two The Hard Way – 50,000
1979 Take Me Home – 550,000
1979 Prisoner – 75,000
1982 I Paralyze – 50,000
1987 Cher – 2,050,000
1989 Heart of Stone – 6,000,000
1991 Love Hurts – 3,500,000
1995 It’s a Man’s World – 850,000
1998 Believe – 11,800,000
2001 Living Proof – 1,125,000
2010 Burlesque – 1,375,000
2013 Closer to the Truth – 600,000

The debut album of Sonny & Cher, Look At Us, was strongly successful in the US. It peaked at #2 for 8 weeks, all of them behind Help! by the Beatles. The market was dreadful for LPs then though. The absence of catalog sales for this album limits its to date tally which is on 1,3 million only.

That’s the main issue of all the pre-1987 albums. Some had success upon release including All I Really Want to Do, Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves (titled Cher), Half-Breed and Take Me Home, but they were all deleted a few years later. They were released in a few countries only as most markets were dominated by singles instead. Bad market conditions coupled with no catalog sales mean that even her hit albums moved around half a million units only. In fact, her first 18 solo albums add for less than 5 million sales!

This situation changed with Cher, the 1987 album. It sold 2 million copies and opened the door to larger promotional campaigns. Heart of Stone sold 6 million copies, confirming the trend. Both albums saw most of their sales come from North America. Her Love Hurts smashed various countries but flopped in the US, although 3,5 million is still great. It’s A Man’s World bombed, only to see Believe smash ever harder. Then, Living Proof was a disastrous follow up. This sequence resumes perfectly the career of Cher, made up of huge and unexpected smashes followed by hard core flops. Her ups and downs are unmatched.

In total, she sold nearly 35 million studio albums, including 27,3 million from the last eight sets.