''Black Rose'' is the lone album by the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band Black Rose, whose lead singer was American singer-actress Cher. The album was released on August 21, 1980, by

Casablanca Records Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label current ...

, her final project on the label. Unlike Cher's previous solo records (such as '' Take Me Home''), the album was a commercial failure. It failed to chart and has sold only 400,000 copies worldwide.

Album information

In 1980, Cher and her part-time boyfriend

Les Dudek Les Dudek (born August 2, 1952, at Naval Air Station, Quonset Point, Rhode Island, United States) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. In addition to his solo material, Dudek has played guitar with Steve Miller Band, The Dudek-Fin ...

wanted to form a band called Black Rose. The band, before signing a contract with

, was an independent rock band that played in small clubs around

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and tried to make it without trading on Cher's celebrity. Besides Cher, the other band members were Les Dudek, Gary Ferguson, Michael Finnigan,

Warren Ham Warren Ham (born 1957) is an American multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for playing with Kansas (band), Kansas (1982), Toto (band), Toto (1986-1988, and since 2017) and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Ringo Starr (since 2015). During the ...

, Rocket Ritchotte and Trey Thompson. ''Black Rose'', the last of Cher's albums released by the

, was produced by James Newton Howard. Her name never appeared on the album cover and Cher's face was only seen in a band photo on the back cover. The album is Cher's first album with a rock sound, that would characterize her future Geffen-era albums. The album was a flop and Cher fans were unaware of the project. After the failure of the album, the band broke up the following year. In Germany, Spectrum Records re-released the Black Rose album, completely intact, for the first time on a CD. It was packaged with a photo of Cher singing in concert and marketed as a Cher album, instead of as a Black Rose album. In August 2020, a remastered version was released on Rock Candy Records for the album's 40th anniversary. It was remastered by Jon Astley. A vinyl release on purple vinyl scheduled for the end of 2020 will include two previously unreleased songs, "Desperado" and "I Shall Be Released."

Second untitled album

There were rumors about a subsequent album, recorded during 1980 and 1981, which would have contained some songs sung live in their mini-tour, "''The Black Rose Show''", such as "Ain’t Got No Money" and "Dirty Old Man", but the project was cancelled. "Don't Trust That Woman" written by Cher and Les Dudek, was written for the album but was dumped. Dudek recorded the song for his album, and a song with the same lyrics was later recorded by Elton John.

Promotion

The album was promoted on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

'' and the band performed "Never Should've Started" and "Julie" but both lip-synched. The album was also promoted at the '' Midnight Special'' with four performances: "Never Should've Started", "Julie", "You Know It" and the

Frankie Miller Francis John Miller (born 2 November 1949) is a Scottish rock singer-songwriter and actor. Miller wrote for and performed with many recording artists and is best known for his 1977 album ''Full House'', the singles "Be Good To Yourself", " D ...

cover "Ain't Got No Money" all the songs were sung live. Videos of the performance have been available on YouTube since March 2009. The album was also promoted on ''

The Merv Griffin Show ''The Merv Griffin Show'' is an American television talk show starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, May 10, 1965 to July 4, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 ...

''.

The Black Rose Show

To support the album and to lift sales in 1980, the Black Rose band and Cher did a mini tour called ''The Black Rose Show'' performed only in North America. The setlist for the show contained: "Never Should've Started", "Julie", "You Know It", "Ain't Got No Money", a little band introduction, and "Dirty Old Man". For six East Coast concert dates, Black Rose was the opening act for

Hall & Oates Daryl Hall and John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, are an American pop rock duo formed in Philadelphia in 1970. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two ...

. The costumes for the show were designed by

Bob Mackie Robert Gordon "Bob" Mackie (born March 24, 1939) is an American fashion designer and costumier, best known for his dressing of entertainment icons such as Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Diahann Carroll, Carol Channing, Cher, Doris Day, Marle ...

. The band performed in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

, Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel Township and elsewhere.

Set list

# "Intro" # "Never Should Have Started" # "Julie" # "Take it from the Boys" # "88 Degrees" # "Déjà Vu (Da Voodoo's In You)" # "Fast Company" # "Ain't Got No Money" Source:

Shows

Critical reception

The reviews were mixed, many critics questioning Cher's credibility and drawing comparisons to other New Wave rock groups, particularly Blondie. ''Billboard'' magazine said that " ..it shapes a New Wave style that fits the midtempo rock mode with which the main group members are associated" and about Cher "especially well done though Cher's vocals are emotional and full of life on the entire disk". ''People'' magazine said that "Cher's quivering, over-mannered vocals on this LP need all the help they can get, and she gets more than she deserves" and "This album could be vastly improved, rerecorded by the ''Group with No Singer''".

Track listing

Personnel

* Cher - lead vocals *

- guitars, vocals * Ron "Rocket" Ritchotte - guitars, background vocals * Phil Brown - additional guitar on "88 Degrees" *

Mike Finnigan Michael Kelly Finnigan (April 26, 1945 – August 11, 2021) was an American keyboard player and vocalist, his speciality being the B3 Hammond organ. Working primarily as a freelance studio musician and touring player, he played with a wide va ...

- keyboards,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

* James Newton Howard -

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, synthesizer, keyboards *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthe ...

- synthesizer, keyboards * Steve Porcaro - synthesizer, keyboards * David Paich - keyboards, background vocals * Trey Thompson - bass * Gary Ferguson - drums * Max Gronenthal - background vocals *

- background vocals * John Townsend - background vocals * Anne Streer - production coordinator * Mick Mizausky - engineer * Tom Knox - engineer * Dana Latham - engineer * Bob Schaper - engineer * Skip Sailor - engineer assistance * Gene Meros - engineer assistance * Terry Christian - engineer assistance *

Bill Schnee William S. Schnee (born July 4, 1947) is an American musician, music producer, and audio engineer. Schnee has been nominated 11 times for the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Grammy Award and worked on a multitude of other Grammy nominated an ...

- mixing * Mike Reese - mastering * Kosh - art direction, design *

Aaron Rapoport Aaron Rapoport (born May 22, 1954) is an American photographer, best known for his photographs of musicians. Biography In a career that spans over three decades, Rapoport has photographed in a wide variety of areas including commercial photogr ...

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

References

External links

Official website of Cher
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Rose 1980 debut albums Cher albums Casablanca Records albums Articles containing video clips