Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn/Cher Free Sheet Music
Walking in Memphis is a song composed and originally recorded by the Jewish-American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, for whom it remains his signature song. Cohn said the song is "100 percent autobiographical". He described it as a song about "a Jewish gospel-music-lover", and as "a pretty literal transcription of a visit I made ... in 1986. I went to Graceland, I heard Al Green preach the gospel, I saw W. C. Handy's statue. But the song is about more than just a place, it's about a kind of spiritual awakening, one of those trips where you're different when you leave." It reflects on Cohn's experience as a Jew who feels the Gospel spirit of Memphis.The last verse refers to Cohn's inspirational encounter with singer Muriel Wilkins, with whom he performed "Amazing Grace". This all culminates in the iconic lyric, " 'Tell me are you a Christian, child?' and I said, 'Ma'am, I am tonight!' " Cohn finds it funny that many listeners infer from the lyric that he is a Christian or born again. "But to me," Cohn said, "that line could have only been written by a Jew. It's such a Jewish line, and I love that."
Cohn reached number 13 in 1991 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was the only Top 40 hit for Cohn. "Walking in Memphis" has since been remade several times, notably in 1995 by Cher (number 11 UK) and in 2003 by Lonestar (number 8 C&W/ number 61 Hot 100).
"Walking in Memphis" was remade by Cher for her twenty-second studio album It's a Man's World from which it was released as the lead single in Europe and the UK on 16 October 1995. The b&w music video prepared to promote the track intercut footage of Cher singing - seated in the doorway of a motor coach - with footage of an Elvis Presley-like figure - played by Cher - mostly seen walking down the streets of Memphis. The lyrics as sung by Cher reverse the gender of Muriel the pianist, the pianist being renamed Gabriel. Cher - wearing a blonde wig and dark outfit as on the single's picture sleeve - premiered "Walking in Memphis" on the TOTP broadcast of 19 October 19, 1995: her version then debuted at #11 on the UK Singles chart for the week ending 28 October 1995, and after being reprised on the TOTP broadcast of 26 October 1995 - on which Cher sang "Walking in Memphis" groomed as Elvis Presley - her single essentially maintained its UK chart popularity with a #12 ranking dated 4 November 1995.
Cher's "Walking in Memphis" subsequently made a rapid UK chart descent dropping out of the Top 100 after a #68 ranking dated 9 December 1995 to return to the UK Top 100 charts dated 20 December 1995 (#97) and 6 January 1996 (#100), the single evidently boosted by Cher's performance of the song on ITV's The Caballe Family Christmas special broadcast Christmas Eve 1995. It would be Cher's followup single to "Walking in Memphis": "One by One", which would provide the singer with her most significant UK hit off It's a Man's World, as "One by One" spent two weeks at #7 in January 1996 with a four-week Top Ten tenure. Although never issued as a single in North America, "Walking in Memphis" did afford Cher a minor Canadian hit in the autumn of 1996, the album cut receiving enough radio airplay to reach #60 on the 100 Hit Tracks chart in RPM magazine. - wikipedia
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