Cher, Bette, Olivia, Goldie, Meryl and Robin Williams - concert special from 1990

Just watched the show - what a great concert (who knew Goldie could sing so well? Too bad she never did 'Chicago' with Liza back then). Sad to see Robin Williams and ONJ - both no longer with us. (ONJ still had two years to go before she got the cancer diagnosis that would reframe the next 30 years of her life). Great to see Cher, Lily, and Goldie with their original faces.

Isn't this the Earth Day special?

I don't remember it, but '90 was a tumultuous year.

Friends of the Environment.

Meryl Streep has met everyone and seen it all. She’s beyond Hollywood royalty

No dirt from Bruce Vilanchi.

Do you think Cher knew that the song "Fire Down Below" was done by drag queens in The Rose?

Lily looks like she’s trying not to laugh when Goldie sings.

Where were Cher and Bette’s kids at the end? And why only one of Meryl’s?

Olivia looks like she’s trying came from teaching at Gymboree.

Interesting where they all were at that time in their lives, and what the new decade (the 90s) would have in store for them...

Robin Williams had been a hit warming up the audience for the benefit concert for Streisand in her backyard a few years prior. I wondered if that's why they tapped him to do this 'outdoor benefit concert' as well ? And he had many more box office hits ahead of him at that point of his career.

Olivia Newton-John was one of the most successful pop acts of the previous decade, and her 1981 single 'Physical' had been awarded '#1 Song of the Decade' for the 80s. She was heading back to the recording studio soon to record a new album of dance / pop tunes once again for the 90s, until she got the devastating news about her cancer in the summer of 1992. That changed the path of her career and life for the next 30 years.

Meryl Streep had a stellar decade behind her at the box office, and had another hit movie with 'Postcards from the Edge'. She would try her hand at more comedic roles in the 90s, a departure from the many heavy dramas of the 80s, and have less box office success with most of them. In two more years, she'd team up with Hawn to film 'Death Becomes Her', one of her more successful turns at comedy.

Hawn wasn't as busy in the 90s as she was in the 70s and 80s, but she did have two big hits - 'Death Becomes Her' and 'First Wives Club', which she would star with Bette Midler. Most of her other films during the decade were ignored.

Midler also had a spectacular decade at the box office n the 80s, ending with 'Beaches'. Starting the 90s off, she would go on to do the forgettable 'Stella', 'For the Boys', and 'Scenes from a Mall' in the early part of the decade, and then have a hit in 1993 with 'Hocus Pocus'. Three years after, she'd have another hit with 'First Wives Club', Her recording / concert career proved more successful in the 90s.

Cher focused on movies in the 80s, proving to be a box office star, but fizzled out in the 90s with only two movies still somewhat memorable today ('Mermaids' and 'Tea With Musolini' to bookend the decade). She reignited her recording career in the late 80s, and continued a successful run as a recording artst and concert performer (like Midler) in the 90s.

"ABC Broadcast" suggests perhaps it was an ABC broadcast, OP. As does a simple Google search.

Ever try one?

Cher would have a huge career resurgence with the mega-hit "Believe" in 1998.

Sorry Bruce Vilanchi but some of your material is cringeworthy.

Bette wouldn't let Cher sing on What a Wonderful World because she lip synched her solo number. Huge cat fight

I like Olivia with long hair and this is a great live version of magic.

R13 - she sounds like she is singing live to me.

R13 Tell us more. And why did Bette make the decisions ?

Robin has some funny lines. When he sees a child in the front row he says, Uncle Robin has just lost ten minutes now.

Lily does Judith Beasley - The Compulsive Shopper.

I grew up around women who were just like Judith Beasley.

Am I the only eldergay who opened the OP's link expecting to see Bette Davis and Olivia de Haviland singing with those younger people?

[quote] Am I the only eldergay who opened the OP's link expecting to see Bette Davis and Olivia de Haviland singing with those younger people?

That's extreme even for Datalounge.

Interesting trivia about Cher / ONJ

When Cher heard ONJ's album 'Physical' for the first time, she loved it. She had said in an interview back then that she played it repeatedly, and then called ONJ to congratulate her on the album and hitting the top of the charts with the title track. She also asked ONJ about her longtime producer John Farrrar, as she wanted him to produce her next album, which she was going to record in early December 1981 for Casablanca.

At first Farrar was going to give her three songs which were written for ONJ's "Physical" album yet never used, but ended holding on to two - 'Heart Attack' and 'Tied Up' - for ONJ to record and release for her upcoming 'Greatest Hits, Volume 2' album due in September of 1982. The third song was 'I Paralyze', which ONJ had no interest in recording for 'Physical' or for GHV2. He gave the song for Cher to record. That would become the title track, and the album was built around that. Farrar was hoping this new album would propel Cher to the top of the charts the way 'Physical' did for ONJ. It didn't.

The album failed miserably, neither of the two singles ("Rudy" or the title tack) hit the Hot 100 and the album never entered the Hot 200 (Cher performed the two singles on 'Solid Gold' for promotion).

Cher then wisely decided to focus on her movie career over the next five years. She signed with Geffen in 1987, and recorded / released her comeback album 'Cher' to better success.

R19 I find Lily so much funnier than Robin Williams. Of course her style is the opposite of his.

expecting to see Bette Davis and Olivia de Haviland singing

R20 Neither of them could.

Just started watching.

Once upon a time, you judged a singer's talent by how they sounded when they sang live, like Bette is here.

Can't do that anymore.

I am not a Bette fan. I can tolerate her singing Friends but Wings Beneath My Wings - no.

Thanks for posting this, OP. It was wonderful.

Those were the days!