Cher's outfit for the original video, a fishnet body stocking under a black one-piece bathing suit that left most of her buttocks (and a tattoo of a butterfly) exposed, proved very controversial, and many television networks refused to show the video. MTV first banned the video, and later played it only after 9 PM.
Cher initially disliked the track after listening to a demo tape sung by Warren, but subsequently changed her opinion after Warren forced her to record it.
The Navy received criticism for allowing the video shoot, especially from World War II veterans who saw it as a desecration of a national historic site that should be treated with reverence: the USS Missouri was the site of the Empire of Japan's Surrender on September 2, 1945, thus ending World War II.
It charted at number one in Australia and Norway, as well as reaching number three in the United States and number six in the United Kingdom.
It became Cher's second consecutive solo number-one hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.