Sonny & Cher

Sonny & Cher proved one of the magical musical combinations of the mid-'60s and one of the better rock-influenced MOR acts of the early '70s, their wisecracking repartee providing counterpoint to a series of adoring hit duets. Salvatore "Sonny" Bono (born February 16, 1935) started out at Los Angeles-based <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Specialty+Records%22">Specialty Records</a> as a songwriter in the late '50s, responsible for "Koko Joe" by <a href="spotify:artist:77L8e8POqCHpCGoEbZEiBj">Don & Dewey</a> and "She Said Yeah" for <a href="spotify:artist:5NBY8xM51dP3UGR7bwjLD6">Larry Williams</a>, which was later covered by <a href="spotify:artist:22bE4uQ6baNwSHPVcDxLCe">the Rolling Stones</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4b0WsB47XCa9F83BmwQ7WX">the Righteous Brothers</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Bono</a> became a protégé of <a href="spotify:artist:3jVMgT4X7YeuYE4aludcmE">Phil Spector</a>, managing to write a handful of successful songs, most notably "Needles and Pins" in collaboration with his protégé <a href="spotify:artist:2GVyv9OLNp6cmxfUDbGrXM">Jack Nitzsche</a>, which became a success for <a href="spotify:artist:0iVed2Qu7dmL0pIYCj1Xw8">Jackie DeShannon</a> and a huge international hit for <a href="spotify:artist:4QmkLL9JOqM9dusHS1Hghe">the Searchers</a>. In 1964, while working sessions with <a href="spotify:artist:3jVMgT4X7YeuYE4aludcmE">Phil Spector</a>, he met an 18-year-old would-be singer named Cherilyn Lapierre (born May 20, 1946), and the two were later married. They formed a professional duet, initially as Caesar & Cleo for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vault+Records%22">Vault Records</a> and later Reprise, but it was only after they were signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atlantic+Records%22">Atlantic Records</a> as Sonny & Cher that success came their way. The couple embarked on parallel careers, with <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a> later signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Liberty%2FImperial+Records%22">Liberty/Imperial Records</a> as a solo act.

They were a strange duet in the sense that neither had a great voice and, indeed, their voices were so similar that <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atlantic%22">Atlantic</a>'s president <a href="spotify:artist:6Z6HnCqAg8vekEhGJsKbLG">Ahmet Ertegun</a> was convinced that <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Sonny</a> had come close to breaking a contract by turning up singing with her on her solo hit "All I Really Want to Do" and her other <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Imperial%22">Imperial</a> hits. The latter song, however, also demonstrated their ability to spot a hit, as well as good material for themselves: they'd heard <a href="spotify:artist:1PCZpxHJz7WAMF8EEq8bfc">the Byrds</a> performing the <a href="spotify:artist:4LOM7NzyrZvlGSYPFDsnTk">Dylan</a> song at a club in Los Angeles and got <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a>'s recording out before <a href="spotify:artist:1PCZpxHJz7WAMF8EEq8bfc">the Byrds</a>' own was in stores, beating the folk-rock group at its own game of popularizing <a href="spotify:artist:4LOM7NzyrZvlGSYPFDsnTk">Dylan</a> songs. She subsequently hit with "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" while <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Sonny</a> charted with "Laugh at Me" on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atco%22">Atco</a>, but their biggest success was as a duet on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atco%22">Atco</a>, with "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On."

For a time, from 1965 until 1967, they were rock & roll's hottest couple, so much so that in some conservative communities, they were considered almost morally subversive; parents locked up their kids when Sonny & Cher were passing through for a concert appearance. They were popular enough, and sufficiently well-known that <a href="spotify:artist:22bE4uQ6baNwSHPVcDxLCe">the Rolling Stones</a> impersonated them on the British television music showcase Ready Steady Go, miming to "I Got You Babe" with Brian Jones subbing for <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Sonny</a>.

And then nothing. The hits stopped coming, and the couple made some daringly creative but unsuccessful commercial missteps, even a movie (Good Times, directed by William Friedkin in his debut) that was, like <a href="spotify:artist:320EPCSEezHt1rtbfwH6Ck">the Monkees</a>' Head, too far ahead of its time for critics and all but the most advanced fans to appreciate. A further film effort, Chastity, a name shared by their daughter, also bombed, and the sudden confrontation of a $200,000 income tax debt forced the couple to continue working. Further, they were unable to record because of a dispute with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atlantic%22">Atlantic</a> over <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Sonny</a>'s objections to the way that <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a>'s solo career was being handled.

They were playing supper clubs and Las Vegas nightclubs, opening for people like <a href="spotify:artist:7fmKtIgmxqNEKjATioVNsu">Pat Boone</a>, when Johnny Musso, a friend of the couple's, was jumping from an executive position at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atlantic%22">Atlantic</a> to run <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Decca+Records%22">Decca Records</a>' Kapp label subsidiary, and brought the duo with him. At around the same time, their stage act -- which had evolved into a kind of "with it" domestic comedy routine nearly as prominent as the music, with the tall, wry-witted <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a> cutting up on the seemingly dim-witted <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Sonny</a> -- was spotted by Fred Silverman, who was then the head of programming for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22CBS%22">CBS</a>. They ended up with a summer replacement try-out show that did so well that Sonny & Cher were given a regular spot in the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22CBS%22">CBS</a> lineup in January 1972 with a comedy-variety series.

The couple's recording career was initially revived by a live album cut in one night at Las Vegas, featuring new versions of their early hits as well as parts of their then-current repertory; the album went gold. The first couple of singles by <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a> and Sonny & Cher failed, but then producer Snuff Garrett, who had been at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Liberty%22">Liberty</a> when <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a> was there but had never worked with her, was brought in, and the result was "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves," a career-reviving number one hit. After that, "The Way of Love," "All I Ever Need Is You" (which became the theme for their TV show), "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done," "Half Breed," and "Dark Lady" kept either <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a> or the couple in the Top Ten at various times through 1974. By then, however, their marriage had fallen apart, and with it, the success of their TV show.

By then, it didn't matter. They were pop culture icons, though <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Bono</a> became the butt of many jokes when <a href="spotify:artist:72OaDtakiy6yFqkt4TsiFt">Cher</a> eclipsed him with her acting career in movies like Silkwood and Mask. <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Bono</a> was in the restaurant business when his outrage at the bureaucracy of the government in Palm Springs, California, caused him to declare his candidacy for mayor; he won the election, and was subsequently elected to Congress during the 1994 Republican sweep of the House of Representatives. He continued to represent his ex-wife's business interests, even as his subsequent remarriage (the name Sonny & Cher is trademarked), and was beginning to make a mark as a conservative Republican member of the California House delegation when he died in a skiing accident in 1998. <a href="spotify:artist:4ui9JwXE5MHylLzpsoiEhr">Bono</a>'s second wife, Mary, succeeded him to the same House seat in a special election, and in the general election in 1998. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi