Songfacts®:

• Co-written by Diane Warren and Desmond Child, this song was recorded by Cher on Geffen Records and released October 1989; in the UK in December.
  
  You're struttin' into town like you're slingin' a gun
  Just a small town dude with a big city attitude
  
  This section is a fairly obvious allusion to what happens to any man who crosses Ms. Warren, or more likely Cher:
  
  Tonight you're gonna go down in flames
  Just like Jesse James
• For the record, the real Jesse James was shot in the back of the head on April 3, 1882. His murderer, Robert Ford, and his brother were arrested, indicted for murder, pleaded guilty, sentenced to hang, and pardoned all on the same day. As James was an outlaw, this was all legal and above board. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
• "Just Like Jesse James" was part of Cher's musical resurgence in the late '80s. She put her music on hold early in the decade to focus on acting, quite successfully, with starring roles in Silkwood (1983) and Mask (1985). She had plenty of roles lined up, but John Kalodner at Geffen Records talked her into singing again.
  
  "I didn't wanna have anything to do with it, truthfully," Cher told Mojo. "I just said, 'Look, I'm making movies and I think my singing days are over.' And John said, 'Don't be ridiculous. You're a great singer, with the most distinctive voice.' But I kept him waiting for a long time, 'cos I did three movies in a row and I thought, He's just gonna get tired and leave me alone. But he didn't. He was very tenacious, and thank God. I guess it was the style of the time."
  
  Those three movies were Suspect, Moonstruck, and The Witches of Eastwick. She won the Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck.
  
  The Geffen album, called Cher, was also released in 1987 and got her back on the charts with the single "I Found Someone." For her next album, Heart Of Stone, the finest songwriters, producers and musicians were summoned from all the lands, and hits were made, starting with "If I Could Turn Back Time," followed by "Just Like Jesse James." Cher fell out of favor a few years later but returned with a vengeance with the #1 hit "Believe" in 1998.
• Running 4:08, there were various releases; in Australia it was backed by "Starting Over"; it was also put out as a 3-track single including "I Found Someone."