All I Really Want to Do (album)
1965 debut studio album by Cher
All I Really Want to Do is the debut solo studio album by American singer and actress Cher, released on August 16, 1965, by Imperial Records. Issued while she was still recording as part of the duo Sonny & Cher, the album marked her first full-length project under her own name and represented a parallel launch to her work with Sonny Bono on Atco Records.
Produced by Bono with arrangements by Harold Battiste, and recorded at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, the album is largely composed of cover versions, drawing from contemporary folk and rock material. Its repertoire includes songs by Bob Dylan, Ray Davies, and other established writers, alongside a small number of compositions associated with Bono.
Upon release, All I Really Want to Do was met with generally positive critical reception and achieved notable commercial success. Retrospective reviews have highlighted its production and Cher's vocal presence, while commercially it reached the top 20 in the United States and the top 10 in the United Kingdom.
Background and production
At the same time that the duo Sonny & Cher were debuting on Atco Records, Sonny Bono arranged a solo deal for Cher on the Imperial label. After the success of Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" single, Bono decided to promote his wife as a solo act, producing her first full-length album himself. The album was Cher's first solo project since the release of her two unsuccessful 1964 singles, "Ringo, I Love You" and "Dream Baby", released under the pseudonyms Bonnie Jo Mason and Cherilyn respectively. All I Really Want to Do, like the debut album by Sonny & Cher, Look at Us, contains many covers.
The public source identifies “All I Really Want to Do (album)” as 1965 debut studio album by Cher. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Really, Want and album.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2280644. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “All I Really Want to Do (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.