All I Really Want to Do (1965)

Cher’s first album was produced by her then-partner Sonny Bono. It got a chance mostly on the strength of their hit “I Got You Babe,” though Sonny’s industry associations with Phil Spector and hosts of ace session musicians didn’t hurt. That said, the production here in general is far more lackluster than sparkling. Cher, or both, not to mention the whole world, were in thrall to Bob Dylan at the time. The album produced a top 20 hit in the title song, a Dylan cover, which the Byrds also released as a single that autumn. Cher’s version did better and it’s the best thing on the album, emphasizing her confident clarion vocals to good effect. Two more Dylan covers (“Don’t Think Twice” and “Blowin’ in the Wind”) are part of the makeup of the rest of the album. The album bears the same familiar formula of the times: 1 hit, 11 covers, 32 minutes. Perhaps because of the Dylan influence, notable strains of folk here are mixed in with the pop, such as “The Bells of Rhymney,” a song by Idris Davies and Pete Seeger. “See See Rider” is credited as traditional but I think of it more as rock in the superior hands of the Animals and Mitch Ryder. Producer Sonny had a hand in two songs, “Needles and Pins” cowritten with Jack Nitzsche and a hit for the Searchers (and, much later, Tom Petty with Stevie Nicks) and “Dream Baby” (not to be confused with Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream”). I suspect there was a lot of snickering in the studio while the Chris Andrews song “Girl Don’t Come” was recorded, but maybe that’s just me having an AI hallucination. This is another album I acquired through the Columbia Record Club. I liked the title song a whole bunch, although, I’m sorry to say, it’s a little worn out for me now after all these years, abetted by oldies radio, but still good when I can sit still and hear it. I liked pretty much everything by Sonny & Cher in the ‘60s, and then the overheated Cher solo in the ‘70s of course. But the drab production on All I Really Want to Do and the too often underwhelming singer and/or band performance—a terrible version of “I Go to Sleep” is Exhibit A—meant it was never particularly in heavy rotation. Approach with caution.