For Mother’s Day 2013, Cher went all out on the celebrations, inviting her mom, Georgia Holt, into the spotlight for the first time in many, many years. This was the same year which saw the release of the family’s heartfelt documentary, “Dear Mom, Love Cher,” and, more than 10 years later, a clip of Cher and her mom singing “I’m Just Your Yesterday” hidden within the doc has started going viral on YouTube, leaving viewers in awe.
Georgia (aged 86 at the time) and Cher (then aged 66) take to the vocal booth together, duetting on the 80s country-pop track in real time. They sing with all smiles, Cher’s arm around her mum’s shoulder as they work through their harmonies, laugh through the track, and forget who’s singing whose lines.
While Cher’s hilarious lip sync to the backing vocals is bound to brighten any Music Man reader’s day, the way Georgia’s deep, classic voice blends with her daughter’s famous tones is beautiful to witness, especially after learning the crazy story behind this song.
Georgia Holt was in the process of recording an LP of her own back in the 1980s with off-cuts from Elvis Presley’s band. Yet somehow, this project fell through and the master tapes were lost for decades, only to resurface years later in Georgia’s garage. Cher had the tapes remastered, and filmed the documentary “Dear Mom, Love Cher,” not only as a Mother’s Day present, but as a sneaky promotional tactic for her mum’s debut album, 2013’s “Honky Tonk Woman.”
The documentary was a family effort, compiling interviews with Georgia, her daughters Cher and Georganne, and her famous grandchildren, Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman, providing “a rare peek” and “unprecedented access” into Cher’s “fascinating family history.” You can watch the whole documentary in the video above/below!
The synopsis certainly doesn’t lie. Cher’s rise to the limelight has been documented time and again, but Georgia’s early life was a whirlwind in itself. After taking to the movie screens, starring in 1950’s “Watch the Birdie” and 1951’s “Grounds for Marriage,” followed by a few TV stints, Georgia married a shocking eight times throughout her life. First up was Cher’s dad John Sarkisian, who she married twice, two decades apart (Cher later told interviewers, “I don’t know why […] She told me she never loved him that much. She just said he was very convincing… I didn’t meet him until I was 11.”), followed by another five men in relatively quick succession from 1948 to the mid-70s, until meeting her soulmate Craig Spenser with whom she remained from 1976 ’til her death in 2022 at 96 years of age.
