Believe it or not, there was a time when Cher wasn't just the Queen of Autotune. Long before she changed the industry with "Believe," she conquered the world with a song about a kiss. Specifically, a cover of a 1960s soul track that basically shouldn't have worked in the grunge-heavy landscape of the early nineties.
It did, though. Big time.
The Shoop Shoop Song It's in His Kiss became a global monster. It hit number one in the UK for five weeks. Five. That’s more time than many "legendary" rock bands ever spent at the top. But if you ask a casual fan today, they might just remember it as "that song from the movie with the kid from Addams Family."
There is a lot more to the story than just a movie tie-in.
The Weird History of a 1964 Soul Classic
Most people think this is a Cher original. It's not. Honestly, it's not even a Betty Everett original, though her 1964 version is the one everyone tried to beat. The track was actually written by Rudy Clark and first recorded by Merry Clayton in 1963.
Clayton’s version? It went nowhere.
Then came Betty. She took it to number six on the Billboard Hot 100. It became the definitive "girl group" sound of the era, even though Betty was a solo artist. It was catchy, innocent, and had that rhythmic "shoop shoop" backing vocal that gave the song its eventually-official name.
Fast forward to 1990. Cher is filming Mermaids.
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She’s playing Mrs. Flax, an eccentric, slightly flighty mom in the 1960s. The movie is set in 1963. It’s the perfect setting for a throwback soundtrack. Producer Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon fame) gets the call. He needs to update a classic without stripping away the soul.
What they ended up with was a "kitchen-sink" production.
The drums are loud. The guitars are crashing. Cher isn't just singing; she's basically "belting like a charging rhino," as some critics put it back then. She’s over-singing every line, and you know what? It works. It’s Cher being Cher. It’s high-camp energy that makes you want to dance in your kitchen while making a sandwich.
Why the Music Video is Pure 90s Gold
If you haven't watched the video lately, go do it. It’s a time capsule.
You’ve got Cher in a massive black wig. You’ve got a young Winona Ryder looking slightly awkward but charming. And then there’s tiny Christina Ricci in her first-ever screen appearance. They’re all dressed in 60s garb, doing these synchronized dance moves in what looks like a high school gym or a soundstage made to look like one.
It was designed for "mom and daughter" moments.
Critics at the time called it "daggy." That’s a polite way of saying it was uncool. But the public didn't care about cool. They wanted fun. The video was on heavy rotation on MTV and VH1, bridging the gap between Boomers who remembered the original and Gen X kids who just liked the beat.
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The Chart Dominance Nobody Expected
In the United States, the song did okay. It peaked at number 33. Not a flop, but not a world-beater.
The UK was a different story entirely.
The British public absolutely lost their minds over it. It stayed at number one for over a month in 1991. It became the second best-selling single of the year in the UK. Think about that for a second. In a year where Bryan Adams was dominating the charts with "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," Cher was right there with a song about whether or not his "sighs" were making him believe.
It proved Cher was a survivor. She was in her mid-forties—an age the music industry usually uses to put female artists out to pasture—and she was outselling teenagers.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Lyrics
The song is basically a checklist for teenage insecurity.
Is it in his eyes?
No. Is it in his sighs?
No. The lyrics tell you that everything except the kiss is a lie. "You'll be deceived," Cher warns us. It’s funny because the advice is objectively terrible. If you’ve ever been a teenager, you know that a kiss can be just as misleading as a "warm embrace."
But the song isn't a relationship manual. It’s an anthem of certainty.
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It captures that specific moment where you think you’ve found the secret key to understanding another person. The "shoop shoop" refrain acts like a heartbeat. It keeps the energy moving so you don't have time to realize that "that's just his arms" is a hilarious thing to yell at someone who is trying to hug you.
The Legacy of the "Shoop"
Today, the song is a staple of wedding DJs and karaoke nights.
It’s safe. It’s clean. It’s got a range that most people can actually hit without sounding like a dying cat. But there’s a layer of technical skill in Cher’s version that’s easy to overlook. Jack Nitzsche did the string arrangements, and if you listen closely to the 2025 remasters, you can hear the complexity beneath the "bubblegum" surface.
The song also served as a bridge.
It was the final "pure pop" era for Cher before she pivoted into the dance-pop territory that would define her career from 1998 onwards. It showed she could handle soul, rock, and pop all at once while keeping her personality front and center.
She wasn't trying to be Betty Everett. She was playing a character who was trying to be a 60s mom. That layer of performance is what gives the track its lasting power.
Actionable Next Steps
If you're looking to dive deeper into this era of pop history, start by listening to the Betty Everett 1964 original side-by-side with Cher's 1990 version. You'll notice Cher's version is significantly faster and uses much heavier percussion to mask the lack of a live "Wall of Sound" orchestra.
Next, check out the Mermaids soundtrack. It's one of the few 90s soundtracks that actually holds up as a curated experience rather than just a pile of random songs. Finally, look for the "Alternate Version" video on YouTube; it features more behind-the-scenes footage of the cast that wasn't used in the primary promotional push.