"If I Could Turn Back Time" is a song performed by American singer and actress Cher from her nineteenth studio album, Heart of Stone. It was released as the album's lead single in June 1989, by Geffen Records. The song was written specifically for Cher by Diane Warren, who produced it in collaboration with Guy Roche. Cher was unmoved by a demo of the song sung by Warren, but Roche insisted she record it. The lyrics talk about the feelings of remorse due to bad deeds and the willingness to reverse time to make things right.
"If I Could Turn Back Time" is a pop rock and soft rock song that features instrumentation from guitars, piano and drums. The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics, who applauded its overall production and Cher's vocal performance, with some considering it to be a highlight of the album. Commercially, the song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Cher's first number-one hit in Australia. It also reached the top 10 of the record charts in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
The accompanying music video for "If I Could Turn Back Time", directed by Marty Callner, was shot on board of the battleshipUSSMissouri and portrays Cher performing for the ship's crew, wearing a leather thong that revealed her tattooed buttocks and straddling a cannon. Military personnel condemned the video, while some family groups protested against its broadcast, because they deemed it offensive for the Navy and controversial. Following these protests, MTV was forced to air the video after the 9pm watershed.
The song was written by Diane Warren, who produced the song along with Guy Roche.[2] While the soft rock track was specifically written for Cher, the singer initially disliked the song upon hearing a demo and turned it down. Warren claimed in 1991: "I got on my knees and pleaded. I told her I wasn't going to leave the room until she said yes, and finally, just to get rid of me, she did."[3] In 2014, she further added: "She really hated [it], but I held her leg down during a session and said, 'You have to record it!'" According to Warren, Cher reportedly responded: "'Fuck you, bitch! You're hurting my leg! OK, I'll try it.' Once Cher sang it, she gave me this look like, 'You were right'."[4]
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Gary Hill of AllMusic retrospectively wrote that the song "has a crunchy texture to it, albeit in a poppy, '80s Starship sort of arrangement."[5] The Daily Vault's Mark Millan noted it as a "soft-rock anthem".[6]Music & Media described it as "a well-produced FM sing-along."[7]
Music video
Cher on tour 1989 singing "If I Could Turn Back Time".
The music video for "If I Could Turn Back Time", directed by American television director Marty Callner, takes place on board the battleshipUSSMissouri. It depicts Cher and her band performing a concert for a couple hundred of the ship's enthusiastic crew in white ceremonial dress uniform.[8][9] The video was filmed in Los Angeles in the middle of the night around Friday June 30, 1989, while the ship was stationed at the former Long Beach Naval Shipyard at Pier D. In the video, the band plays under the main guns on the foredeck, and the ship is rigged with spotlights, light racks and strobes. Cher's son, Elijah Blue Allman, 12 at the time, appears as one of the band's guitarists wearing dark glasses and a Jimi HendrixT-shirt.
The Department of the Navy had granted permission for the music video shoot because of its potential for boosting Navy recruitment;[8][10] at the time (1989) the Navy did not have a budget for TV ads. The Navy initially selected the battleship USSNew Jersey for the video. However, New Jersey was out to sea when Callner needed to do an initial site survey, so he toured her sister ship, Missouri, instead. During Callner's visit, Missouri's public affairs officer, Lieutenant Mark Walker, convinced him to change the filming location to Missouri.[11]
Cher's Bob Mackie-designed[12] outfit for the original video, a fishnet body stocking under a black one-piece bathing suit that left most of her buttocks (and a tattoo of a butterfly) exposed, proved controversial, and many television networks refused to show the video.[13][14]MTV first banned the video, and later played it only after 9 PM.[10] A second version of the video was made, including new scenes and less overtly sexual content than the original. The outfit and risque nature of the video were a complete surprise to the Navy, who expected Cher to wear a jumpsuit for the concert, as presented on storyboards during original discussions with producers. The sailors were already in place and the band had begun playing when Cher emerged in her outfit.[11] Lieutenant Commander Steve Honda from the Navy's Hollywood Liaison office requested Callner briefly suspend shooting and convince Cher to change into more conservative attire, but Callner refused.[citation needed]
The Navy received criticism for allowing the video shoot,[8] especially from World War II veterans who saw it as a desecration of a national historic site that should be treated with reverence: USS Missouri was the site of the Empire of Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945, thus ending World War II.[9]
No Navy officials were disciplined for their role in supporting the video, although reportedly the Secretary of the Navy briefly considered firing the captain of USS Missouri.[11] Other parts of the Navy commended the event.[8][9]
In 2021, the video appeared on a "Sexiest Music Videos of All Time" list by Rolling Stone magazine.[15]
In 2003, Cher released her Living Proof: Farewell Tour concert on DVD which included an official "If I Could Turn Back Time" remix video.[citation needed]
Live performances
Cher performing "If I Could Turn Back Time" during the 2014 Dressed to Kill Tour.
Cher performed the song on the following concert tours:
The song was used in the 2019 commercial for Luminess Silk Foundation makeup products.[52] In 2025 it was used in an Uber Eats commercial in which Cher herself appeared.[53]
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