Hey it's Stacey & Mike and thanks for checking out our blog and I Know That Song! Be keeping track of the songs at 7:10 each morning to name the common theme on Friday and win free lunch from Jersey Mikes. Always A Sub Above.
Today’s song is by a beloved singer and actress and it featured a pioneering use of the audio processing software Auto-Tune to distort her vocals.
Auto-Tune came on the market in 1997, and producers quickly realized that putting it on an extreme setting would create a heavily distorted vocal. The general public didn't know that musicians were now having their vocals corrected so their pitch was always perfect. This song pulled back the curtain on this studio technique.
One producer said it was "the most nerve-wracking part of the project", as he was not sure how today’s singer would react. But she approved and insisted the effect remain when Warner wanted it removed. The technique was a huge success and widely imitated and the effect was eventually named after her.
The song topped charts around the world and it earned her, at age 52, a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest female solo artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart and it was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
This was a big comeback song for her: she was one of the biggest stars of the '60s and '70s. In the '80s, she was also one of the most successful actresses in the game, winning an Oscar in 1988 for Moonstruck.
She revived her music career in 1989 with the MTV hits "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "Just Like Jesse James," then came storming back in 1998 with today’s song.
When this song hit #1 in the US, it marked the longest period between Hot 100 chart-toppers for any act.
Before this song, her last #1 on the chart was "Dark Lady" in 1974. At 25 years, this broke the record previously held by The Beach Boys, who went 22 years between "Good Vibrations" and "Kokomo."
Cher…Believe…on K103’s I Know That Song