Album Information
Heart of Stone was released in 1989 and was her second studio album for Geffen Records. As with her previous album Cher, 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 the song exist in bootleg form). 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.
Heart of Stone reached number 10 in the U.S., number 7 in the UK, and by topping the charts in Australia, Heart of Stone became Geffen's first international number 1 album. Her 20th studio album, it was the first in her career to go top 10 in the U.S. (though she would go on to have three more, Believe, Living Proof and The Very Best of Cher). It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart for sales of 209,000. As of November 2011, the album has sold 964,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which began counting sales after March 1, 1991.
The album was first released with artwork, and later re-released with more conventional studio photos. The original was a painting by Octavio Ocampo, featuring Cher sitting beside a stone heart, creating the illusion of a skull (see infobox picture). The artwork was changed shortly after its release, making copies with the original artwork collector's items.
She 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 the single. 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.
The album produced three top ten hits as well as a top twenty hit with the title track.
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