Yesterday, I heard The Shoop Shoop Song for the first time in years. In fact, I didn’t even know that the singer was Cher. It had never crossed my mind. In the end, it was great re-discovering this song and reading up on its history.
While Cher recorded the most famous version of this song, it was actually originally released in 1964 and became a hit for singer Betty Everett when it reached number 1 on the Cashbox magazine R&B chart in the US. Since then, it had been recorded by various artists but it wasn’t until Cher recorded it as part of the soundtrack for her movie Mermaids that it became an international hit. Despite the song not being a hit in the US due to the box office flop of the movie, it reached the top ten in more than a dozen countries.
Lyrically, it’s all about a woman wanting to find out if a man loves her or not and how they should go about doing it. The song suggests that you cannot tell by “his eyes.” Nor can you tell by “his signs”, “his face” or “his embrace.” The only way you can tell whether he loves you is by looking into his kiss. His kiss is the only thing that can tell you that. The same thing could be applied to men looking to find out whether a woman loves them or not. The Shoop Shoop Song certainly carries a positive message for those searching for the love of their lives.
Rhythmically, the song is very catchy and easy to sing along to. In fact, I think I’m going to choose this song to sing along to the next time I do karaoke. It certainly seems like a very fun song.
One of the things that took me a while to find was the “shoop shoop” part of the song. If you listen carefully to the song, you will find 4 instances where the background singers sing this. You may want to look for it while watching the video of the The Shoop Shoop Song below.
