Song: Walking in Memphis
Artist: Cher
Original artist: Marc Cohn
Many songs have an autobiographical element to them but, according to writer Marc
Cohn, Walking in Memphis is 100% a creation based on his own experiences.
Cohn was a struggling New York-based songwriter and singer when in 1985 he took a
trip to Memphis in a bid to banish writer’s block.
I don’t intend to go through the song line-by-line, but Cohn really did visit the church
where the Reverend Green was preaching – that’s the Rev Al Green, the soul singer
who had hits with songs such as Let’s Stay Together (see elsewhere on this blog). He
did visit Elvis’s former home, Graceland, and there was a singer named Muriel who
sang every Friday at the Hollywood.
The song was not released until six years after Cohn’s trip to Tennessee and the
following year (1992) it was nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards. It
did not win, but Cohn was voted Best New Artist at the not-so-young age of 32.
The song peaked at No 13 in the US Billboard Hot 100 charts, but didn’t make much of
an impression in the UK (reaching 66) although on re-release it hit No 22.
The 1995 version by Cher fared better in the UK hitting No 11 although Cher, when
introducing the song as concerts, would describe Cohn’s original as a “huge hit” and her
own as a “huge bomb”. I think she was being a little hard on herself there. Judge for
yourself with the video below.
For those not familiar with much of Marc Cohn’s work (that’s me, by the way) I would
like to draw your attention to another of his songs, Silver Thunderbird. For me, it just
edges Walking in Memphis, but it’s a very close call.
