In 1965, flush from the success of
Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe,"
Cher earned her first major solo contract with Liberty/Imperial (she had previously recorded only a few singles under aliases). With
Sonny Bono enlisted as producer,
Cher lit up the pop charts with the smash "All I Really Want to Do," and its follow-up, "I Go to Sleep." Although the next three years saw only inconsistent chart entries, her recordings were interesting and frequently as good as the leading lights of folk-pop,
the Mamas & the Papas. And she covered most of the best folk songwriters of the time --
Dylan,
Tim Hardin,
John Sebastian,
Paul Simon, and
Jackie DeShannon. Add points for a few interesting crossovers of pop songs like "Sunny" or "Alfie" (the latter a Top 40 hit), but subtract some for a few misguided covers ("It's Not Unusual" prime among them), and
The Best of the Imperial Recordings 1965-1968 is revealed as a near-necessity for '60s folk-rock fans. It includes all of her album debut,
All I Really Want to Do, as well as the vast majority of her four subsequent LPs for the label (
The Sonny Side of Cher,
Cher,
With Love, Cher,
Backstage). ~ John Bush