Heart of Stone is the nineteenth studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on July 10, 1989, by Geffen Records. As of January 1991, the album had sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. The album was supported by Cher's 1989–1990 Heart of Stone Tour.
Contents
Background
Heart of Stone was released in 1989 and was Cher's second studio album for Geffen Records. As with her previous album Cher (1987), Peter Asher, Jon Bon Jovi, Diane Warren, Guy Roche and Desmond Child performed songwriting and/or producing duties. Bonnie Tyler and Michael Bolton performed background vocals on the song "Emotional Fire", which was an outtake from Bolton's 1987 album The Hunger, as was "Starting Over" (Demo versions of both songs exist in bootleg form, and have surfaced on YouTube). The album was recorded in late 1988/early 1989, during the third year of Cher's relationship with Rob Camilletti, to whom she dedicated the album.
The original front cover album art is a painting by Octavio Ocampo that features Cher sitting beside a stone heart. However, when examined in its entirety and from a distance, it is clear this is also a painting of a human skull in profile (note the midriff folds in her dress forming the teeth; see infobox picture). The artwork was changed shortly after its release with more conventional studio photos, making copies with the original artwork collector's items.
Cher recorded two other songs for the album, "Don't Come Cryin' to Me" and "Some Guys", but neither made the final cut. A remixed version of "Don't Come Cryin' to Me" was included on the Geffen compilation album If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher's Greatest Hits. The reissue of that album, per Cher's request, does not include the song. A demo version of "Some Guys" was included on the "If I Could Turn Back Time" 7- and 12-inch singles.
"Heart of Stone" and "If I Could Turn Back Time" were both slightly remixed for single release. The "Heart of Stone" remix is available on CD on the compilation If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher's Greatest Hits issued by Geffen Records.
"After All" was used as the love theme for the film Chances Are.
Critical reception
Billboard predicted that Heart of Stone would repeat the success of Cher's previous Geffen album, describing it as a "well-crafted follow-up", highlighting "If I Could Turn Back Time" as "a suitably lush-voiced starter for radio", and suggesting that "You Wouldn't Know Love" and the title track would be strong follow-up singles, concluding that "the lady's hot career probably won't simmer down with this one".
AllMusic described Heart of Stone as "one of Cher's strongest" albums, praising its "honesty and gritty edge", "strong songwriting", and Cher's "strength of the vocal performance", while noting that, although its sound "seems a bit dated in retrospect", it remains distinguished by its "performance and musical integrity".
Commercial performance
Heart of Stone reached number ten on the United States Billboard 200, number seven on the UK Singles Chart, and topped the charts in Australia, Heart of Stone became Geffen's first international number-one album. It was Cher's first solo album in the United States (Sonny & Cher's debut album Look at Us reached number two and stayed there for eight weeks) to reach the top 10. Further on in her career, she would go on to have five more top ten albums – Believe, Living Proof, The Very Best of Cher, Closer to the Truth and Dancing Queen. The album has sold more than three million copies in the United States, with 964,000 of those units sold since early 1991, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which began counting actual sales that same year.
The album produced three top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as a top-20 hit with the title track.
Personnel
Production
Frank Wolf – associate producer (12)
Debra Shallman – album coordinator
Melanie F. Williams – album coordinator
Cathy Woller – production coordination assistant
Norman Moore – art direction, design
Gabrielle Raumberger – art direction (alternate cover)
Kevin Takishita – art direction, logo design (alternate cover)
Herb Ritts – photography
Octavio Ocampo – cover painting (alternate cover)
Technical
John Golden – mastering at K Disc Mastering (Hollywood, California)
David Donnelly – mastering supervisor
Frank Wolf – recording (1, 3–6, 10, 12), mixing (1, 4, 6, 12), additional engineer (8, 11)
Sir Arthur Payson – recording (2, 7, 9), mixing (7, 9)
Mick Guzauski – mixing (2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11), recording (8, 11)
Guy Roche – additional engineer (1)
Bruce Robb – additional engineer (2, 9)
Terry Christian – additional engineer (3, 5, 10)
Jay Healy – additional engineer (3, 5, 10)