Song for the Lonely

"Song for the Lonely"
Single by Cher
from the album Living Proof
Released	March 19, 2002
Recorded	2001
Genre	Dance-pop[1]
Length	4:01
Label	Warner Bros/WEA
Writer(s)	Mark Taylor, Paul Barry, Steve Torch
Producer(s)	Mark Taylor
Cher singles chronology
"The Music's No Good Without You" (2001) "Song for the Lonely" (2002) "Alive Again" (2002)
Cher North American singles chronology "Dov'è L'Amore" (1999) "Song for the Lonely" (2002) "A Different Kind of Love Song/The Music's No Good Without You" (2002) Cher European singles chronology "The Music's No Good Without You" (2001) "(This is) A Song for the Lonely" (2002) "Alive Again" (2002) Audio sample file info · help

"Song for the Lonely" is a song recorded by American singer-actress Cher for her 24th studio album, Living Proof. It was released on March 19, 2002, as the second single from the album in Europe while in North America it was released as the lead single, by Warner Bros. and WEA. The song was performed in some American television programs and in her 2002–2005 Farewell Tour.

Song information

"Song for the Lonely" served as the first American single, second Canadian single and was meant to follow "Alive Again" as the third European single, but it was dropped due to complications with Cher's record company. However, the song was released as a promo CD and sent to European radio stations. The song was a hit, although only peaking at #85 on the Hot 100, it managed top 40 on some U.S airplay charts.

According to Cher's official web site and album liner notes, "Song for the Lonely" is 'dedicated to the courageous people of New York especially the fire fighters, the police, Mayor Giuliani, Governor Pataki and my friend Liz'.^[2] The song had been released in the US in March 2002, just 6 months after the September 11 attacks.

Critical reception

"Song for the Lonely" received generally positive reviews from music critics. AllMusic highlighted the song and praised, "Cher takes a brief break from her inquisitiveness about love to dedicate the bold, heartfelt opening track, in honor of the September 11th tragedy, 'Song for the Lonely' to 'the courageous people of New York, especially the firefighters, police, Mayor Guiliani, Governor Pataki.' "^[3] Rolling Stone also agreed by writing that it "clearly intends to evoke September 11th."^[4] Slant Magazine noted that it "wisely abandons such (otherwise welcomed) electronic shenanigans for a pure and impassioned performance."^[5]

Live performance

In June 2002, "Song for the Lonely" was added to Cher's Living Proof: The Farewell Tour setlist and was sung for the first four legs of the tour. After dropping it for five legs, the song was re-added only on the last show, where it was used as tour finale.

Cher performed the song on Cher at the Colosseum for the first week of shows only.

In 2005, "Song for the Lonely" was used internationally in television advertisements for Weight Watchers. However, the choice of song, suggesting that the overweight were desperate, lonely and unloved, raised complaints, and the advert was soon edited to include only an instrumental of the song.

Music video

The music video for "Song for the Lonely" was directed by Stu Maschwitz. The video features Cher walking around the streets of New York City. While the setting for the start of the video is in the 1800s (decade), Cher is dressed in modern day clothes. The video is also in Sepia. The video progresses to black and white, and then to color, as the times for the setting of the video change to the 1900s (decade) through various eras to the present day. As the timeline changes, buildings around New York are shown being constructed. The video is intercept with shots of Cher dressed in white as an angel or God-like figure, which is overlaid in some shots, as well as shots of New York from the air. People from each stage of the development of New York join Cher as she walks the streets until at the end, there is a large crowd of people from all eras.

The popularity of "Song for the Lonely" in the clubs proved to be very successful and because of this, two remix videos were created by Dan-O-Rama, one for the almighty remix and one for the Thunderpuss remix. The remix videos only use footage of the 'white' angel/goddess Cher, overlaid with visual effects, clouds and photos and graphics from the Living Proof artwork, as well as silhouettes of 2 dancers.

The video projection screen during the performance of "Song for the Lonely" on Cher's Farewell Tour included elements from both the original and remix videos. Elements were also incorporated into the projection for the "Love Medley" which replaced "Song for the Lonely" on the European leg of the tour.

In 2002, the video was released on VHS to serve as promotion in the United States.^[6]

The video for "Song For The Lonely" was included on the DVD The Very Best of Cher: The Video Hits Collection. The ending of this video is slightly different from the one previously released. The video ends with a shot of New York from above. In the video on the DVD collection, Cher is superimposed on top of this shot, this was not the case in the original version.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of all single releases of "Song for the Lonely".

When the American version of Living Proof was released in 2002, the track name, which was originally "(This Is) A Song for the Lonely" on European pressings of Living Proof, had been changed to simply "Song for the Lonely". Later US pressings of the album also substituted the radio edit of the song for the longer album version.

Official Mixes

Charts

See also

• List of number-one dance singles of 2002 (U.S.)

References

External links

• Official Cher site
• Warner official site
• Cher at the Internet Movie Database