Peak
1
Weeks
31
Score
7,203
Chart Year
1999
The official music video for "Believe", directed by Nigel Dick, features Cher in a nightclub in a double role as a singer on stage while wearing a glowing headdress and as a supernatural being in a cage (with auto-tuned voice) surrounded by many people to whom she is giving advice. The video largely revolves around a woman who is in the club with her friends and sees her ex-boyfriend. Scenes are shown of her clearly disappointed when he walks away from her and then proceeds to dance and make out with another woman in her presence. The version on The Very Best of Cher: The Video Hits Collection is slightly different from the previous version (the version that is also included on the Mallay Believe Bonus VCD) with additional scenes towards the end that were not in the original video. There are also two 'rough' versions of the video as the song was released in Europe before a video was completed. The first is a compilation of scenes from the videos of Cher's previous singles "One by One" and "Walking in Memphis" and the second includes a brief scene of the "Believe" video where Cher sings the chorus while the rest of the video is composed of scenes from "One by One". Three official remix videos exist for this song. Two of the remix videos were created by Dan-O-Rama in 1999. Both follow different concepts from the original unmixed video. Instead of showing the significance of the lyrics the videos mostly show Cher with different colored backgrounds and people dancing. The two remixes used for these videos were the Almighty Definitive Mix and the Club 69 Phunk Club Mix. The third video entitled Wayne G. Remix was released by Warner Bros. and the concept is similar to the Club 69 Phunk Club Mix video. Billboard music critic Chuck Taylor in March 1999 graded the video a "C", praising Cher's appearance and hairstyle but criticizing "an unnecessary subplot about a few kids stalking each other.
Many great songs were written and recorded very quickly in short bursts of inspiration. This wasn't one of them. About six years in the making, this song was the result of the painstaking efforts of six songwriters and at least three producers attempting to create a massive hit for Cher. The song began life as a demo created by four songwriters at Cher's record label, Warner Brothers. From there, it went to some top producers, including Nick Van Eede of Cutting Crew, who said in his Songfacts interview: "Kevin MacMichael and I produced the original demo with Mark Scott and Brian Higgins in 1992 I think. That shows how long the song sat around. We tweaked the melody and chords in the famous chorus... listen to the first two chords to 'I've Been in Love Before' and the first two chords to 'Believe' and you'll hear the similarity. We got paid a bottle of whisky between us for the session!" The song eventually made its way to Metro Productions, which is a small studio in London, where Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling worked on the track after two Metro songwriters reworked it a bit (bringing the songwriter tally to six). They used a variety of studio techniques and processors to create a very synthesized sound, trying to create an original dance track that wouldn't alienate Cher's core audience that was used to her rock ballads. In an interview with Sound On Sound magazine, Mark Taylor explained that he ended up producing the song twice: "It was just too hardcore dance - it wasn't happening. I scrapped it and started again, because I realized it needed a sound that was unusual, but not in a typical dance record sort of way. This was tricky, because dance music is very specific. To get what I was after I had to think about each sound very carefully, so that the sound itself was dance-based but not obviously so." The big breakthrough in the production of this song was the distinctive vocal effect, which the producers claimed was done using a vocoder device. It was later revealed that they used an Auto-Tune processor, which is a device created by Antares Audio Technologies to correct the pitch in recorded vocals. Vocoders had been used in music since the '70s to synthesize voices, creating a robotic effect. 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. That's not what the software was made for, but it created a vocoder-like sound that kept some of the actual vocal, making it sound less computerized. Cher's team had reason to deny they were using Auto-Tune: the general public didn't know that musicians were now having their vocals corrected so their pitch was always perfect. "Believe" pulled back the curtain on this studio technique. "Believe" was a massive hit in the UK before it was even released in America. In the UK, the single was released on October 19, 1998; it debuted at #1 on Halloween and spent seven weeks on top, becoming the biggest UK hit by a solo female artist, selling about 1.7 million copies. In America, it was a slow build; released as a single on November 10, the song first charted (at #99) on December 19, 1998 and climbed to #1 on March 13, 1999, where it stayed for four weeks. In the UK, it was the biggest-selling single of 1998; in America, it was the biggest-selling single of 1999. Thanks to this song, intentionally distorted Auto-Tuned vocals became known as the "Cher effect." Kid Rock actually beat her to it, using Auto-Tune in this manner on his song "Only God Knows Why," released a few months earlier. In 1999, Eiffel 65 had a huge hit with "Blue (Da Ba Dee)," but that one likely used a harmonizer. The rapper/producers Kanye West and T-Pain were the ones who refined and popularized Auto-Tune as an effect with their '00s output. This was a big comeback song for Cher, who was one of the biggest stars of the '60s and '70s. 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 "Believe." In the '80s, she was also one of the most successful actresses in the game, winning an Oscar in 1998 for Moonstruck. When this hit #1 in the US, it marked the longest period between Hot 100 chart-toppers for any act. Cher's 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 was 52 when "Believe" topped the charts in the UK and US, making her the oldest female artist to have a #1 hit in both territories. When Cher broke the record Louis Armstrong was the most senior singer to top both charts; in America he hit #1 with "Hello, Dolly!" in 1964 when he was 62; in Britain, he was 66 when "What A Wonderful World" went to #1 in 1968. Kate Bush took Cher's record in June 2022. When "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" climbed to the summit, the English singer was 63 years and 11 months. All of the songwriters and producers involved with this track were men, but they crafted the song so it would appeal to a female audience. The lyrics are about moving on with confidence after a failed relationship. The song's vocal effect came from an unlikely source. Cher recalled to Q magazine December 2013: "While we were recording 'Believe' in the UK, I saw Roachford on a morning TV show. He was singing with a vocoder and guitar, and it sounded so great. My producer said, 'You can't do that after you've recorded the song. But I was playing around with the pitch machine and I think I can get something interesting from that...' So he played it and we just smiled at each other. It was exactly what we needed to make the really boring verse... sing." Proving that there is plenty of substance to this song, the Australian group DMA's covered it on the Triple J radio show Like A Version in October 2016. Their rendition got over 3 million views on YouTube, prompting them to released the song on digital platforms in April 2017. In the 2001 Friends episode "The One With Chandler's Dad," this plays as Chandler and Monica arrive in Vegas to meet Chandler's estranged father. It was also used on these TV series: Splitting Up Together ("Go Out The Lights" – 2019) Mr. Sunshine ("Hostile Workplace" – 2011) Will & Grace ("Whose Mom Is It, Anyway?" – 1999) Buffy The Vampire Slayer ("Living Conditions" – 1999) Sex And The City ("Evolution" – 1999) It was also featured in the movie Land Of The Lost (2009).
No matter how hard I try You keep pushing me aside And I can't break through There's no talking to you It's so sad that you're leaving It takes time to believe it But after all is said and done You're gonna be the lonely one, oh Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no What am I supposed to do Sit around and wait for you? Well I can't do that And there's no turning back I need time to move on I need a love to feel strong 'Cause I've had time to think it through And maybe I'm too good for you, oh Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no Well I know that I'll get through this 'Cause I know that I am strong I don't need you anymore I don't need you anymore I don't need you anymore No I don't need you anymore Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough, no
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dec 19, 1998 | 99 | 27 |
| 2 | Dec 26, 1998 | 77 | 49 |
| 3 | Jan 2, 1999 | 58 | 68 |
| 4 | Jan 9, 1999 | 47 | 79 |
| 5 | Jan 16, 1999 | 52 | 74 |
| 6 | Jan 23, 1999 | 35 | 91 |
| 7 | Jan 30, 1999 | 18 | 108 |
| 8 | Feb 6, 1999 | 13 | 113 |
| 9 | Feb 13, 1999 | 4 | 122 |
| 10 | Feb 20, 1999 | 3 | 123 |
| 11 | Feb 27, 1999 | 2 | 124 |
| 12 | Mar 6, 1999 | 2 | 124 |
| 13 | Mar 13, 1999 | 1 | 125 |
| 14 | Mar 20, 1999 | 1 | 125 |
| 15 | Mar 27, 1999 | 1 | 125 |
| 16 | Apr 3, 1999 | 1 | 125 |
| 17 | Apr 10, 1999 | 2 | 124 |
| 18 | Apr 17, 1999 | 2 | 124 |
| 19 | Apr 24, 1999 | 2 | 124 |
| 20 | May 1, 1999 | 3 | 123 |