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TL;DR:

  • Cher’s “Dark Lady” was a big hit even though the singer never liked the song.
  • She revealed she was often asked to sing certain songs regardless of whether she liked them.
  • “Dark Lady” would be her final No. 1 hit in the United States for 25 years.
Cher wearing a beret
Cher | Tara Ziemba/Getty Images

Cher‘s “Dark Lady” is one of her most famous hits. Despite this, she was not a big fan of the song. She contrasted “Dark Lady” with the movies Jack Nicholson was making at the time.

Cher preferred songs by The Eagles to her own hit single ‘Dark Lady’

During a 2015 interview with Billboard, Cher said she was not a big fan of her own catalog. She couldn’t always tell what was going to be a hit for her because she wasn’t always a big fan of “commercial” songs. “You know, [at the time] I was into Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell and The Eagles, and those were the kinds of songs I wanted to do,” she said. 

“Like, I was doing these kind of poppy songs,” she said. “I was not content, necessarily, to do them, but … Like, I never liked ‘Dark Lady,’ and it was a big hit.” In the same vein, she revealed that artists back then, particularly female artists, had to sing certain songs whether they wanted to or not.

Cher did not think the songs she was making lived up to the movies made by her friends Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty

Cher contrasted her work with the work of her friends. “I was like hanging around with Anjelica Huston, and Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and I was singing [‘Dark Lady’],” she said. “They’re making like fabulous art and I’m making ‘Dark Lady.'”

Cher was told the song was great. “Well, it’s very kitschy … and it seemed to go along well with people’s idea of who I was at that point,” she responded. “And I really kind of wanted to do rock ‘n’ roll. I wanted to do harder rock. I got a chance to do it later.” She may have referred to some of her 1980s songs such as “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Just Like Jesse James.”

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How ‘Dark Lady’ and its parent album performed on the pop charts in the United States

“Dark Lady” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in 1974. It stayed on the chart for a total of 16 weeks. Subsequently, she didn’t have another No. 1 single in the United States until “Believe” reached the top of the chart in 1999.

“Dark Lady” appeared on the album Dark Lady, which reached No. 69 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for a total of 14 weeks. 

“Dark Lady” isn’t one of Cher’s favorite songs but it’s one of America’s favorite Cher songs.

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