Cher

Sonny & Cher proved one of the magical musical combinations of the mid-'60s and one of the better rock-influenced MOR acts of the early '70s, their wisecracking repartee providing counterpoint to a series of adoring hit duets. Salvatore "Sonny" Bono (born February 16, 1935) started out at Los Angeles-based Specialty Records as a songwriter in the late '50s, responsible for "Koko Joe" by Don & Dewey and "She Said Yeah" for Larry Williams, which was later covered by the Rolling Stones and the Righteous Brothers.

Cher returns to the dancefloor for her latest effort, Living Proof, churning out a dozen electronic, beat-heavy tracks about heartbreak, loneliness, and survival. Songs about strength and perseverance are no anomaly coming a woman who has managed to sustain a career that has lasted four decades; and it's no mystery that Cher would be the first to be right there when you fall, telling you to get up on your feet, dust yourself off, and get out on that dancefloor. And get up you will, with this peppy dance album that spouts warm sentiments and reverberating sounds to keep you going all night long. But the power of the album's punch loses its luster each time the auto-tuner kicks in, contorting Cher's deep, sexy voice into some kind of canned electronic robot dialect.

You might have thought that, since the 1998 merger of MCA and PolyGram, creating Universal Music, brought the hits Cher scored in the 1970s and '80s for Kapp, MCA, Casablanca, and Geffen under one roof, the next time they got around to doing a best-of they would combine all those catalogs. No such luck. In the wake of Cher's 1999 comeback with "Believe," Geffen issued its own comp, If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher's Greatest Hits. So, when MCA came to compile The Best of Cher as part of the midline-priced 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection series, they simply took the 1974 MCA Greatest Hits album, stripped off two B-sides, and added the 1979 Casablanca disco hit "Take Me Home" and the 1971 Sonny & Cher hit "All I Ever Need Is You."

On October 19, Cher will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One month later, on November 19, Cher releases the first volume of her long-awaited autobiography. The Memoir: Part One will be preceded on September 20 by the superstar's latest hits anthology - her first in nearly two decades. Forever, featuring 21 newly remastered songs curated by the artist, arrives from Warner Records on 1 CD or 2 LPs (pressed on crystal-clear vinyl). On the same date, the Forever: Fan Edition arrives digitally with a couple of true rarities that still await physical release.