Cher almost turned her back on her No. 1 smash “Believe” — one of the best-selling singles of all time — which was released Oct. 19, 1998.
“ ‘Believe’ was a mess — I’m telling you,” she told The Post last month. “The only thing good about ‘Believe’ was the chorus, and [it] just was like, ‘Hold your breath and get through the verse.’ ”
In fact, the 77-year-old diva had such little belief in the dance anthem that she had a standoff with producer Mark Taylor about it.
“He and I finally started to argue one day, and he kept saying, ‘Cher, you’ve got to sing it better, you’ve got to sing it better, you’ve got to sing it better,’ ” she said. “And I finally turned to him, and I said, ‘If you want it better, get another singer.’ And I walked out and went home.”
But Taylor coaxed Cher into trying “a pitch machine” on the song for better results.
“I mean, I have no idea what a pitch machine is,” she said. “I know what ‘off pitch’ is. I just didn’t know you could fix it.”
That “pitch machine” was the Auto-Tune software that “Believe” pioneered with its computerized vocal correction.
“So he started to play it, and it was like, ‘Oh, my God — this is the best thing ever!’ Because you don’t know it’s me in the beginning [of the song]. I was so excited. And we jumped up at the end, and we high-fived each other. We were delirious.”
“Believe” would go on to win a Grammy for Best Dance Recording in 2000 — and it popularized the Auto-Tune sound that became known as “the Cher effect.”
But 25 years later, Cher isn’t exactly thrilled that “Believe” — and the same-named album that just got a deluxe reissue— is a quarter century old now.
“It’s not that amazing, OK?” she quipped on the “Today” show Tuesday.
“It pisses the f–k out of me. You can’t put that out! It just is like, ‘What is this?’ ”
Right now, though, Cher is focused on her new “Christmas” album, the first holiday LP of her six-decade career. And she’ll perform on the “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” tree-lighting special airing Wednesday on NBC and Peacock.
Then the artist born Cherilyn Sarkisian is itching to get back in the studio and make more music — after releasing her last non-holiday LP, the ABBA covers collection “Dancing Queen,” in 2018.
“After Christmas is done,” she told The Post, “I’m gonna start a new album that I’m really excited about.”