x Written by Brian Higgins/ Paul Barry/ Steve Torch/ Matt Gray/ Stuart McLennan/ Tim Powell.
Published by Rive Droite Music/ Warner Chappell.
Recorded and mixed at Dreamhouse Studios, London.
Mixed by Mark Taylor.
Produced by Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling for Metro for Rive Droite Music Productions.
Vocal effects in Metrovision.
Executive producer: Rob Dickins.

x Believe (Xenomania mix)
Remix and additional production: Brian Higgins & Matt Gray.

x Believe (Xenomania Mad Tim And The Mekon Club Mix)
Remix and additional production: Brian Higgins & Matt Gray.

x "Believe" was a number 1 hit record in over 20 countries. It's the biggest selling single of Cher's career. In 1999 it won three Ivor Novello awards for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, Best Selling British Single (decided by sales) and International hit of the year.

x The song uses the Auto-tune effect on Cher's voice. It was the first commercial recording to feature the Auto-tune software used as a deliberate creative effect.

x The single incorporates the work of six different songwriters, two producers and one executive producer. The starting point for "Believe" was a song by Brian Higgins, Matt Gray, Stuart McLennen and Tim Powell, which had been knocking around the Warner offices in demo form for months. Cher's people loved the chorus but not the rest of the song. Steve Torch and Paul Barry then re-worked the lyrics, melody and chords for the verses and middle eight. Rob Dickins highlighted a few changes afterwards. Once the demo version was agreed, Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling took over for the actual production, working at Dreamhouse.

x After writing his first top five hit (Dannii Minogue's "All I Wanna Do"), Brian Higgins was asked if he "had any songs for Cher". On an interview with the Guardian he said that he missed out on the chance to produce "Believe" because he was too embarrassed to invite Cher to his home (a flat above a shop, which he claims "looked like where Top Cat lived") as it "didn't have a helipad".
"There was no way I could have made a version as good as Brian Rawling did at the time. I certainly wouldn't have thought of the Vocoder...", he said.

x Brian Higgins has said in an interview that when "Believe" was initially written he was into The Stone Roses and Madchester: "that very British scene helped influence the writing of the song."

REVIEWS:
x Six songwriters came up with this pop masterpiece, one of the few songs to be able to break through the impenetrable wall of late 1990's fragmented radio to permeate the consciousness of the world at large. The days when much of the planet was singing along with Frank Sinatra's "That's Life", Bobby Hebb's immortal "Sunny", or McCartney's "Yesterday" seem so long ago, but Cher found a tune and a production that knocked the walls down from dance floors to the radio and beyond. "Believe" is one of those melodies that mark a time in a person's life when a relationship folds up for good and it is time to move on. It's a theme that the singer can more than relate to in both her personal and professional life. She was down for the count, and counted out, and has come back time and again like a boomerang. It's a second coming for the diva (after many such second comings), a triumphant vocal performance over a dazzling dance-beat that transcends Eurodisco and flavor-of-the-month Saturday night sounds. (...) Finding a song that is many things to many people is a hard enough task, getting a vocal like Cher gives this one is the mark of a true icon: total "believ"ability to put this right up there with her performances on Kathy Kirby's "The Way Of Love" and Sonny Bono's "You'd Better Sit Down Kids". It's a perfect annunciation of the vibe, and one that only an artist with depth can provide to the listening audience. (...) the re-mix of this by two of the co-writers of "Believe", Matt Gray and "Brian Higgins, is sonically exciting closing generation gaps and giving Cher one of her greatest hits. Joe Viglione

LINKS:
x Recording Cher's "Believe"
x video on YouTube
x Wikipedia page