PRE-ORDER FROM RUN OUT GROOVE
2018 was a great year for Cher, with a starring role in the blockbuster Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the release of her hit album Dancing Queen, the opening of Broadway bio-musical The Cher Show, the reissue on vinyl of the smash Believe album, and a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor. 2019 looks to be shaping up as another banner year for the consummate entertainer. Run Out Groove has just announced that the expanded edition of Cher's 3614 Jackson Highway, first issued on a Rhino Handmade CD in 2001, will be the label's next deluxe vinyl reissue.
Cher's sixth album, the 1969 LP took her out of the environs of Hollywood and into Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Supported by the great musicians there including Eddie Hinton, David Hood, Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson, and Barry Beckett, as well as producers Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Tom Dowd, it was intended to showcase a side of Cher previously unknown. (The title refers to the address of the Muscle Shoals studio.) It featured songs by Bob Dylan ("Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You," "I Threw It All Away," and "Lay Baby Lay") as well as Stephen Stills' "For What It's Worth," Otis Redding and Steve Cropper's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay," and Dr. John's "I Walk on Guilded Splinters." Southern soul staples from Dan Penn and Chips Moman ("Do Right Woman, Do Right Man") and Penn and Spooner Oldham ("Cry Like a Baby") were also featured.
But despite her most soul-infused singing, top-drawer arrangements, and tight band performances, the album failed to restore her commercial fortunes. That, of course, would come later. But in the years to come, 3614 Jackson Highway was re-evaluated as a high watermark in Cher's artistry as an interpretive singer. In 2001, Rhino Handmade reissued it on CD with twelve bonus tracks primarily produced by Sonny Bono, including Cher's renditions of "Easy to Be Hard," "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "Superstar," Goffin and King's "Yours Until Tomorrow," and even the dramatic "Momma Look Sharp" from 1776 but equally relevant to the Vietnam era. Most of these bonuses were drawn from a planned but never released album scheduled to arrive in 1970; five of its ten tracks were issued as singles, but the rest went initially unreleased. ("Superstar," produced by Stan Vincent, was not intended for the 1970 LP, which is presented in mono.) This vinyl premiere from Run Out Groove features all of the Rhino Handmade bonus tracks except for the alternate stereo version from the Chastity soundtrack of "Chastity's Song," making for a near-complete account of Cher's solo Atco recordings.
3614 Jackson Highway: Expanded Edition will be pressed on 180-gram clear and purple mixed vinyl at Record Industry, and will be housed in a gatefold tip-on jacket. It's available to pre-order now at Run Out Groove through February 7 only. It will then be pressed and numbered to a limited quantity based on the pre-orders. Don't miss out on this slice of musical history from the inimitable Cher; you'll find the pre-order link just below!
And don't forget to vote NOW on ROG's next title:
L7, Best of the Slash Years - a new single-disc compilation;
Los Lobos, Kiko: Expanded Edition - half-speed mastered from the original tapes and expanded with a bonus disc of tracks new to vinyl; or
The Meters, Rejuvenation - The original album, half-speed mastered.
Cher, 3614 Jackson Highway: Expanded Edition (Atco LP SD 33-298, 1969 - reissued Run Out Groove, 2019)
Side A
- For What It's Worth
- (Just Enough to Keep Me) Hangin' On
- (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
- Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You
- I Threw It All Away
- I Walk on Guilded Splinters
Side B
- Lay Baby Lay
- Please Don't Tell Me
- Cry Like a Baby
- Do Right Woman, Do Right Man
- Save the Children
Side C (all tracks first released on Rhino Handmade RHM2 7733, 2001)
- Easy to Be Hard
- I Believe
- Danny Boy
- Momma Look Sharp
- It Gets Me Where I Want to Go
Side D
- You've Made Me So Very Happy (Atco single 45-6713-B, 1969)
- Yours Until Tomorrow (Atco single 45-6658-A, 1969)
- The Thought of Loving You (Atco single 45-6658-B, 1969)
- The First Time (Atco single 45-6713-A, 1969)
- Chastity's Song (Band of Thieves) (Single Version) (Atco single 45-6684-A, 1969)
- Superstar (Atco single 45-6793-A, 1970)
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Joe! You neglected to mention Cher's top 3 LP of ABBA covers, DANCING QUEEN! It has been a great year for Cher and this is just wonderful news. 3614 really is one of her most beautiful albums and those unreleased tracks are gems. AND ON 180 GRAM VINYL NO LESS! YEAH! Now let's get all her solo albums - ALL OF them remastered and released with original artwork, mono singles etc etc!! THANKS!
I think the gremlins in my computer ate up that line, Dishy! It shall be reinstated. 🙂
From your lips to the Cher gods ears...I would love all the mid to late 70s WB titles issued for real here in America, well every label and every title actually!! Here's hoping for a Cher filled 2019!!!
The WB releases Stars through Cherished have all recently been issued "remastered" (some sound it - amazing) in South America (I think) - you can still find on Amazon - but they have gotten expensive again.... however these need to be eigther in a massive box set KAPP/MCA and then WB and CASABLANCA. TOTALLY REMASTERED - the only good MCA release is Dark Lady actually - the rest of the digital transfers are flat. There are not many outtakes from over those years but every single was released in Mono - through War Paint & Soft Feathers!) and wouldn't it bne amazing if they could get the rights for some of her solos on the TV shows of the corresponding years? Good in depth book etc etc. I hate how Bittersweet White Light it repackaged - especially when the original sleeve was so beautiful! Same with Foxy Lady and Hlaf Breed. TAKE ME HOME - a gold album - has been reissued in MEXICO! supposedly remastered - it does sound good...but the only one available here is that crappy repackage with "You Better Sit Down Kids"! Who the hell makes these decisions? Remaster that and add the 6 12" remixes along with @ 6 Ron Dante outtakes...and PRISONER - please remaster - add the 2 remixes - and there are about 6 outtakes there also! Get it together people! Cher is where it's at! Time to celebrate her amazing output!!
The Cher 70s WB albums from South America are unofficial bootlegs. Avoid them!!!
I figured they were but if they are bootlegs how did they get masters to transfer them? CHERISHED sounds stellar - never sounded that good on vinyl. WHy should they be avoided? If Cher for some insane reason does not want them released officially this is the channel fans will take. Even as cheesy as CHERISHED is - all three of those solos + ALLMAN AND WOMAN are brilliant!
Yes I completely agree with you \, why avoid them?!! the packaging is beautiful, etc...we may have to wait for another type of official release, but in the meantime these are wonderful!!! withe way US labels are these days, the only way we get really great older titles is on import anyway, so I am more than willing to collect as many versions as possible of certain artists!!
Well I should say avoid them if you are thinking they are official releases as they are definitely not. Anyone is free to buy them if they wish, but I personally choose not to spend that kind of money on bootlegs.
There is a guy on the Cher message boards who currently has stellar, and I do mean stellar, rips of all the WB albums available at no cost. They sound amazing. The best I have ever heard and he is still tweaking them even more.
thanks for this information!! which message boards? I would love to have these rips too?!! well, until the official CD versions show up...hopefully in my lifetime?!! thanks again!!
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/cher/
WOW THANK YOU!! just found the site and left a post about the WB releases, etc...what I heard so far via SoundCloud was amazing!!
I'll all on board for this re-issue. It sounds like it will be an amazing package. I'm buying at least 2 copies (one to keep sealed)
I ordered one from Amazon and one from Run Out Groove - just to be sure! I have a mint DJ pressing of the original so I am looking forward to the comparison. All in all, ATCO usually pressed vinyl high quality, so we shall see!