Cher is cool, funny, smart and resilient. This much becomes abundantly clear in Cher: The Memoir, Part One, an absorbing account of one woman’s gradual rise from near Dickensian poverty to pop and TV superstardom in tandem with a man she loved.
It’s essentially the story of her deep abiding bond with two of the most important people in her life – her beloved mother Georgia Holt, a jobbing Hollywood actor who never quite made it, and Sonny Bono, the enterprising songwriter/producer and Phil Spector lackey who recognised teenage Cher’s innate talent.
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Despite an unstable childhood spent with Holt and a series of surrogate fathers (her biological “deadbeat father” was a heroin addict who abandoned his family; Holt briefly had to place her daughter in a children’s home), Cher was never unhappy for long. Growing up on the peripheries of Hollywood, all she ever wanted to do was sing and perform.
A quirky character who wasn’t like all the other girls she rubbed shoulders with, Cher was immediately drawn to the similarly offbeat Bono. The chapters on the giddy rise and despondent fall of their partnership are the pulsating heart of this book.
Here is where you’ll find vivid descriptions of Spector recording sessions (Cher sang backing vocals on You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ among many others), the relentless thrill of being a rich, hippie pop sensation hanging out with the Stones et al, the daily joy of creating a hit TV variety show with her best friend and lover, and, eventually, the devastating realisation that her soulmate had been cheating on her constantly.
