Cher wishes she’d requested a writing credit on her 1998 hit single, Believe, after missing out on “a lot of money”.
The Goddess Of Pop was too “stupid” to ask for her contribution to the track to be recognised, with only Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray and Timothy Powell mentioned on the final release.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Tracks Of My Years’, however, she told host Vernon Kay: “You can’t even imagine — about 30 people wrote on it. And I was so stupid. I didn’t ask. I didn’t even get a writer’s credit.
“I wrote, ‘I’ve had time to think it through, and maybe I’m too good for you’,” continued the Strong Enough hitmaker. “It sold 11 million copies. I could have got a lot of money.”
Recalling the recording sessions for the track, which this year turned 25 – along with its parent album – she added: “The verse was so bad. I couldn’t make it good.
“We — the songwriters and I — got into a big fight over it. I walked out after they said I had to sing it better.
“Then in the morning I said ‘[Use] a vocoder?’ and they said, ‘No, you’ve got to do it at the time [live]’.”
Things soon turned out good, with Cher admitting: “My favourite thing was that you didn’t know it was my voice at the beginning.”
In October, Cher released her first-ever holiday album, featuring a selection of cover versions and originals, including DJ Play A Christmas Song.
The record includes appearances from Stevie Wonder, Darlene Love, Michael Bublé, Tyga and Cyndi Lauper.
In a review of the album, RETROPOP wrote of ‘Christmas’: “Overwhelmingly festive and quintessentially Cher – there’s a new Queen Of Christmas in town!”
