Cher - 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) [2013, Japan]

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Cher - 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) [2013, Japan]

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Cher - 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) [2013, Japan]

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"3614 Jackson Highway" is the 6th album by American singer-actress Cher, released on June 20, 1969 by ATCO. This album was a commercial failure, peaking at #160, although it received praise and positive reviews from the music critics. "3614 Jackson Highway" was the address of Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. The album is by-and-large a covers album. "3614 Jackson Highway" was released in the summer of 1969. It remains Cher's first and last solo studio album for Atco, and was produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin. The cover is a photograph of Cher with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section musicians featured on the album. They are: front row, left to right: guitarist Eddie Hinton, bassist David Hood, Sonny Bono, Cher, producer Jerry Wexler, background vocalist Jeannie Greene, background vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux née Thatcher, and producer Tom Dowd. Back row, left to right: lead guitarist Jimmy Johnson, producer Arif Mardin, drummer Roger Hawkins and keyboardist Barry Beckett. Missing were background vocalists Mary Holiday and Sue Pilkington. The ambitious record was conceived as a way to bring success to Cher, as well as her group Sonny & Cher, after a two-year period of commercial failure. The constant evolution of pop culture left the formulaic nature of Sonny & Cher's musical endeavors obsolete; pop music had continued to transform into a more political style marked by anti-war songs protesting the conflict in Vietnam. For months the duo maintained a nightclub act, but audience response was less than positive. Although the album was largely ignored by the public, critical reception was enthusiastic. Cher's maturing vocals, along with the sophisticated instrumentation and arrangements, garnered praise. The title refers to the address of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, where the album was recorded.

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Cher - 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) [2013, Japan]

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When Sonny & Cher first hit the charts in 1965, Sonny Bono was the brains of the outfit, producing their records and writing the bulk of their material. So after both the duo and Cher's solo career went into a tailspin in the late '60s, their record company proposed a little experiment giving Cher some new collaborators in a new surrounding. Under the guidance of producer Jerry Wexler, who had famously kick-started Aretha Franklin's career when she signed with Atlantic in 1967, Cher recorded 1969's 3614 Jackson Highway in Alabama with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (Jimmy Johnson on guitar, Barry Beckett on keys, David Hood on bass, and Roger Hawkins on drums), the same band that backed Aretha, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, and many others on a string of classic soul hits. With ace guitarist and songwriter Eddie Hinton sitting in and Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin helping with the production (Sonny received a producer's credit, but didn't actually work on the sessions), Cher cut what was arguably the finest album of her career; it's no great surprise that the arrangements on 3614 Jackson Highway lean towards Southern soul, but the music nods politely to Cher's pop instincts as well, and the sidemen deliver the sort of straightforward but rock-solid support that was their trademark.Cher was given some weightier material than she usually handled, including no fewer than three Bob Dylan covers and some classic soul numbers, and if "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" and "For What It's Worth" don't seem like ideal choices today, she sounds mature, forceful, and authoritative on every track. And while Cher doesn't quite come off like a soul diva on these sessions, she welcomes the opportunity to dig deeper into the songs in a way she couldn't on many of her early hits, and she rises to the challenge posed by her collaborators she rides the slinky funk of "Lay Lady Lay" beautifully, knows just how to fill the quiet spaces of "Please Don't Tell Me," and belts out "Cry Like a Baby" with the same punch as the Memphis Horns. 3614 Jackson Highway was a commercial disappointment and it would be another two years before Sonny & Cher would return to the limelight with their television variety show, but Cher was rarely given a better showcase for her talents as a singer, and the album still sounds like a revelation four decades after it was released.

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Cher - 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) [2013, Japan]

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Cher - 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) [2013, Japan]

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