Sonny & Cher

I liked them.

I don't care for Sonny & Cher nor do I like Cher solo but I do love her acting. Her songs are simply awful.

I'm not a fan of Cher, but Sonny was like the obnoxious idiot your best friends brings, uninvited, to dinner.

Were they really a phenomenon before the variety show? They had a couple of hits and would have probably faded like all pop acts if not for that show,

Sonny Bono was a successful songwriter before he became famous as part of the duo with Cher, and wrote with Jack Nietzsche and Phil Spector among others. I never cared for him personally--I would see him in Palm Springs and he impressed me as a tough guy with little man issues-- but some of his songs are gems. Jackie de Shannon's Needles and Pins, for example. Or Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang. His style--the hair and clothes--were the epitome of that era's LA hipster scene.

I loved "I Got You Babe." I was familiar with Sonny's work with Phil Spector, and in 1965, it was refreshing to hear a song whose style reverted back to my pre-Beatle roots (I started buying records in 1963). I bought all their singles and most of their albums.

The songs she recorded with Sonny are really the only good songs she's ever recorded. I love her, but she has terrible taste in music and a lot of other things.

Surprised she hasn’t been canceled for all her Indian cosplay. Both parents were Caucasian.

Just yesterday I rewatched this memorable episode of their last appearance together on Letterman that I saw live the night it aired. At the end, Cher appears years later wearing the same outfit from the earlier show.

You can tell how much they truly still cared for each other.

"Baby Don't Go" is one of my favorites that Sonny wrote.

They were "likeable" hippies. They were a bridge from real threatening hippies to the middle class of America. Plus they were anti-drug and were presentable and funny on Laugh-In.

[quote]His style--the hair and clothes--were the epitome of that era's LA hipster scene.

Hipsters are NOT hippies. Sonny was neither, he was a pseudo-hippie

People couldn’t stop trying imagine that little guy climbing on top of giant Cher and grinding away like a little jackrabbit

Sonny Bono was an interesting fellow. He's one of those rare individuals that willed himself to success in a number of fields, none of which he had much experience in. Music, TV, restaurants, politics...he always seemed to figure out an angle to work his way in. He had a lot of failures along the way, but he always picked himself up and pushed himself to the next challenge.

Well, except for skiing into that tree. He didn't pick himself up after that.

I don't know if he was a fundamentally a good dude or an asshole, or a combination of both, but the guy had gumption.

[quote]Were they really a phenomenon before the variety show?

They were. In England they were even bigger when they got thrown out of the Savoy hotel because the desk clerk thought they were bums. They became overnight sensations. They were lumped in with the British invasion at the time, partly due to their outfits which were Mod like.

According to Cher, what killed their career was Sonny going on TV at the height of the hippy revolution and blasting the whole culture. While Cher agree with him, she said it made them huge squares among the counterculture.

"The Beat Goes On" is iconic. Written and composed by Bono.

Sonny was played in Broadways crappy “The Cher Show” by the very talented and hunky little Jarrod Spector

Here is Spector much better looking than Sonny as Sonny

They had a gimmick and Sonny knew how to parlay that gimmick into a successful empire. Without Sonny, Cher would have ended up being Flo at Mel's diner and she knows it

During the 70s, Cher's glammed transformation was a wow! Her slim body and gorgeous long hair, in Bob Mackie's clothes made her stand out. I didn't think she looked good in her 60s look. She was the one who started the glamorous pop look...that became popular later on.

The genius was how Bono transition Cher to glamour and then basically turned themselves into a new version of Louis Prima and Keely Smith.

Watch how Cher was basically copying Keely's shtick.:

[quote]She was the one who started the glamorous pop look.

No, that was Diana Ross.

Cher's voice was awful and out of tune in I Got You Babe and The Beat Goes On. It was obvious she had voice lessons for her early 70's hits in that her vocals sounded so much better and in control.

The wonders of modern technology!

My Native (Indian) roommate loved Cher. Granted, this was thirty years ago....

I always found it odd that Sonny was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, but i guess it explains a lot of things about how we got where we are. Its hard for me to objectively get around the fact that he was an asshole Republican.

Why were they such a phenomenon in 1965? NO.

Thread Closed

Sonny & Cher were a sensation in the '60s.

I loved Cher then. I love her now. She has sung many great songs: The Way Of Love. Strong Enough. All or Nothing, Believe, If I Could Turn Back Time, Walkin' in Memphis, Heart of Stone, etc.

Her concerts are major happening events. And her voice is still strong.

I don't know where this "there were a sensation in the 60s" comes from, they were one duo out of dozens of groups and duos with a hit record in the 60s. Sonny and Cher had two big hits and a couple of other well played records. Before I saw them, I thought Cher was a guy based on her low voice. The 1970s Sonny and Cher Show was the sensation, even though aside from Cher's clothes and image, was a pretty shitty variety show. Funny, after they spilt up, Rona Barrett's magazines kept them alive as a couple never mentioning the backstage and personal turmoil

What's hard to believe is that when they separated, Cher had her own show on CBS and Sonny had HIS own show on ABC. Neither was the hit they had hoped for, and CBS REUNITED them for another Sonny and Cher Show after the divorce! I have no idea if the second show was popular, I only checked it out once.

[quote]I don't know where this "there were a sensation in the 60s" comes from

Uh...it comes from the fact that they were a sensation.

"During 1965, five of their songs were in US Billboard Top 20, a record passed only by Elvis Presley "

Name them, R30.

R31 Cherilyn Sarkisian and Salvatore Bono

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Sonny & Cher had FOUR top ten singles in the 1960s:

1965 - I Got You Babe, Baby Don't Go

1966 - Laugh at Me

1967 - The Beat Goes On

Gee, that's a feat better than Herman's Hermits.

"I Got You Babe" #1

"Baby Don't Go" #8

"Just You" #20

"But You're Mine" #15

That's it for 1965

The Beatles had close to 30 top ten singles in the Sixties, R30.

Cher was a very big deal with girls in '60s. Had nothing to do with signing. It was all about her look, hair and clothes.

In one year having 5 songs in the top 20 was a huge deal. And they had 4 singles in the year-end Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.

More than anyone else.

Also the fact that they were everywhere on TV in 65.

They were indeed a sensation.

^ Before MTV there were these teen shows on every afternoon in the 60s. American Bandstand, Where The Action Is and others. Sonny & Cher were on these shows almost every day

I Got you Babe and The Beat Goes On....my favorites by them in the 60s...

[quote]I always found it odd that Sonny was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee

I wonder how he managed that, since he wasn't a senator.

Sonny hooked up with Cher when she was only sixteen and he was eleven years older. And yet the people who obsess over pedophilia never call Sonny out, never imagine Cher as a victim.

R41 Does multi-millionaire A-List celebrity Cher with a 55 year career consider herself to be a victim?

[quote]Cher was a very big deal with girls in '60s

I took a survey over the past two hrs and got - HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Cher liked/loved Sonny, but she also knew he could be her ticket to singing, working in a recording studio...and maybe stardom. He had a talent for songwriting and recording back in those days. And he was working with Phil Spector--at that time, a great connection in the record industry. Cher sang back-up on "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, one of the biggest songs of the year...and then back-up with the Righteous Brothers. She was onto something and Sonny was the way forward.

Cher did a cover version of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Wanna Do." She was kind of a rebel, but she was kind of a smart cookie too. And she sang...she didn't auto-tune her voice and ride a damn stripper pole the way the girls do today. Yes, she used auto-tune for "Believe" in 199, but that was a a gimmick; it wasn't to enhance her voice. Go see Cher in concert. She's a phenomenon. Her Farewell Tour lasted for so long because she delivered the goods.

I love I Got You Babe, it’s a perfect pop song.

I always liked Cher's take on the Sonny-penned song "You Better Sit Down, Kids", about a father telling his kids they were getting divorced. In a twist, Cher sings the song from the side of the father.

The big comeback in the 70s started with her three number one songs "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves', "Half-Breed" and "Dark Lady", but in between those Sonny and Cher had hits like "All I Ever Need Is You" and "A Cowboys Work Is Never Done".

It still gets me whenever I see Cher giving that eulogy at Sonny's funeral.

There often was some boy/girl harmony act on the charts in those days. The Marvin Gaye duets with Tammi Terrell and others, for example. Sonny & Cher were big but not Beatles/Stones/Supremes/Beach Boys big in 1965. Yes, they made the rounds of tv shows. Cher had the kind of straight hair that was suddenly popular. They were mildly counterculture-ish but didn't threaten anybody. Sonny was a bit of a svengali--it wasn't just her seeing him as a road to stardom. He was Brill Building enough that they appealed to an older demographic than some of the other acts of their time.

[quote]There often was some boy/girl harmony act on the charts in those days.

In 1965 there were none of any significance.

[quote]Sonny & Cher were big but not Beatles/Stones/Supremes/Beach Boys big in 1965.

They were a whole other thing. Almost a novelty act. But they had a big impact on that year.

[quote]Cher was a very big deal with girls in '60s

Cher is a very big deal with gurls in their 60s.

As I recall Cher didn't have showbiz aspirations. She was ethnic-looking in an era of Leslie Gore and Sandra Dee. She was just Sonny's roommate, then girlfriend. He had all the ambition. She was just along for the ride (at first).

The second string British Invasion bands like "The Animals" probably had more impact than they did. Marvin Gaye was well into his duet era by then, so much for "non of significance". The classic Jerry Butler/Betty Everett version of "Let It Be Me' came out the year before---a better recording than anything Sonny & Cher ever did.

[quote]She was ethnic-looking in an era of Leslie Gore and Sandra Dee.

So were Connie Francis and Annette Funicello.

R38, before MTV, we got our music on the RADIO. In my case, WMCA and WABC (NYC) American Bandstand was shit, promoted by Dick Clark as equal to Ed Sullivan 30 years after the fact.

{quote]In one year having 5 songs in the top 20 was a huge deal.

Not if they were over a five year period. There were dozens of bands that did the same thing.

Sonny was a bit of a svengali???

HA HA HAAAA!

R51 You are comparing apples and oranges.

Sonny&Cher were never cool in the way the Animals were cool..

S&C as a pop culture genre were more The Monkees than The Animals.

[quote]Marvin Gaye was well into his duet era by then,

Marvin Gaye teamed up with Terrell in in 1967. He did do an album with Mary Wells but it was a one time thing. They were not an act.

R53 You have a reading comprehension problem: "In ONE YEAR having 5 songs in the top 20 was a huge deal."

[quote]before MTV, we got our music on the RADIO. In my case, WMCA and WABC (NYC) American Bandstand was shit, promoted by Dick Clark as equal to Ed Sullivan 30 years after the fact.

That's you.

Certainly we all got our music from the radio, but American Bandstand was on every day. That Dick Clark was "shit" is your opinion. In '65 kids also got their music from Shindig, Hullabaloo, the Ed Sullivan Show....

Dick Clark was on every day in Philly in the 1950s, local. Maybe in the 60s, but local Philadelphia until he went Calif. In New York, Dick Clark was a Saturday am syndicated piece of SHIT.

The Beat Goes On still holds up. The funny thing is it's not because it is a brilliant song, but rather it is an incredibly evocating song.

It just gives you a vibe and a feeling.

[quote]Dick Clark was on every day in Philly in the 1950s, local. Maybe in the 60s, but local Philadelphia until he went Calif.

Once again you are wrong.

AB was nationally televised on ABC starting in 1957.

Dick Clark also had a Saturday night show in the late 50s to early 60s.

[quote]I love I Got You Babe, it’s a perfect pop song.

Gotta love I Got You Babe.

Sonny & Cher were huge '65-'67/'68, but they faded fast as the British Invasion cooled and the psychedelic/Vietnam era rock came into vogue, much like many of the rock bands of the day, The Grass Roots, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Dave Clark Five, Box Tops, The Association, etc. Sonny & Cher were never like The Monkees as someone mentioned in a previous post. The Monkees were jokes. S&C were a legitimate act.

Sonny told Cher to give him a couple of years and they would be back on top. They hit the road, performed in lounges all over, then onto Vegas. They got their TV show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1971...and the rest is history. They were huge again. Sonny faded. Cher had some ups and downs, but she was on her way to mega-stardom and succeeded singing, she was back on TV, then onto the stage, movies, more recording and touring. She's a superstar.

[quote]Sonny & Cher were never like The Monkees as someone mentioned in a previous post. The Monkees were jokes. S&C were a legitimate act.

We howled over this when it was shown in our classroom. Sonny starts at around 2:45.

Cher was the sensation, Sonny just sang because Cher had such terrible stage fright that she couldn't sing alone, that's why Sonny basically talks his way through every song. Cher was an influencer. Every girl wanted to know what Cher was wearing, her make-up, her hair. Girls suddenly all wanted to look like her. My older sister literally studied everything Cher did and copied it. Cher was also racially ambiguous which made her popular with a lot of ethnic girls. She's Armenian, like the Kardashians

[quote]... but rather it is an incredibly evocating song.

Naturally I meant "evocative".

I liked how she used to style herself "Chér" with an accent. (That was because Ed Sullivan introduced them as "Sonny and Chur.")

[quote]They got their TV show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1971...and the rest is history

Actually, the Sonny and Cher show was a summer replacement show for Glen Campbell. Glen Campbell began as a summer replacement show for the Smothers Brothers. Anyone remember summer replacement shows?

^ We're talking about Sonny & Cher of course we remember summer replacements. Most of us remember this...

Sonny looked like Lorenzo St. DuBois.

A large part of their appeal, with the show anyway, was their banter.

Later, Chastity started appearing. She was very cute and audiences loved her.

Anyone remember the TV movie about them? It was a big deal and apparently did really well n the ratings.

I'll always remember Sonny as the bozo who extended copyrights for like decades. As an old-film buff, he's on my shit list forever.