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Walking In Memphis — Marc Cohn / Cher
I’ve never been to Memphis. But if I had, I’d imagine it would feel just like Marc Cohn’s 1991 hit record makes me feel.
For me, though, I spent many years thinking of “Walking In Memphis” not as “Marc Cohn’s 1991 hit song”, but as “Cher’s 1995 hit song”.
The Marc Cohn original barely got any attention in the UK, but Cher’s cover version a couple of years later was extremely popular over here and has been a fixture of her repertoire ever since.
Whichever version you prefer, “Walking In Memphis” is one of the all-time great songs. And I must admit, having got acquainted with Marc Cohn’s original a decade or so after Cher had a hit with her version, nowadays I prefer the original.
Not because Cher does a terrible job or anything. Quite the contrary, she’s excellent, as usual, on this record.
But because “Walking In Memphis” is so deeply autobiographical, Marc Cohn’s delivery just has a little bit extra in it…a deeper connection…a more spiritual dimension, if you like. I couldn’t tell you how he does it, but listening to both versions side-by-side, the difference always strikes me.
Although Marc Cohn made it to the upper reaches of the Billboard charts in 1991, the story behind “Walking In Memphis” didn’t start there. It started five or six years earlier…
