I Got You Babe – A trip through the past with #SonnyandCher. #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #SonnyBono #Cher #TheLoveBoat #ChrissieHynde #UB40

Who was Salvatore Phillip Bono? You may know him as Sonny. He is a bit of a fascinating character who has connections to many well known people. His bio is quite interesting for this reason and when I slotted ‘I Got You Babe’ for this day I had no idea how many directions this post could take. So on this ‘Sonny” day sit back and enjoy this post that I am about to ‘Cher’ with you.

Bono was born in Detroit in 1935, and his mother nicknamed him Sonny. The name would stay with him for his entire life. When he was seven his family moved to California. Sonny Bono was a high school dropout who had aspirations in the world of music. In order to support himself he worked in several capacities including, being a waiter, truck driver, butcher’s assistant and a labourer. His music career began in the early ’60s at Specialty Records where his song ‘Things You Do To Me’ was recorded by Sam Cooke. He soon connected with the legendary Phil Spector, and collaborated with another music legend; Jack Nitzsche on ‘Needles and Pins’ in 1963. Ted Tocks featured this song a while back in a package featuring Jackie DeShannon, The Searchers and Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks. Moving back a year, in 1962 Sonny Bono met a dazzling 16 year old young woman by the name of Cherilyn Sarkisian and the two would become forever linked. This is where the story branches out in several directions. ‘Cher’ had aspirations to become famous from an early age. She too dropped out of high school, in favour of taking acting classes. She moved out of her mother’s suburban L.A home and took jobs as a dancer along the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. She was very bold and introduced herself to other performers, managers and agents to assist in getting herself singing or acting auditions. It was here that she met Sonny Bono who as mentioned was working with Phil Spector. Bono invited Cher to move in with him as his ‘housekeeper’ and soon after he got her a spot as a backup singer. Two famous songs that included Cher’s vocal talent were ‘Be My Baby’ by the Ronettes and ‘You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling’ by the Righteous Brothers. Cher’s first appearance on record was as ‘Bonnie Jo Mason’. Yeah! Sonny and Cher were married in October 1964. Ironically, despite her outward appearance that exuded self confidence Cher had serious stage fright and she clung to Sonny for support. This resulted in their obvious chemistry on and off stage. Cher would later say that she overcame her stage fright by singing to Sonny on stage. In her words “she sang to the people through Sonny”. You can see this dynamic in the video I have posted. This is a far cry from the iconic performer Cher would become but you can sense her allure. The duo would appear on record as ‘Caesar and Cleo’. You can’t make this stuff up folks. In 1965 under the name ‘Cherilyn’ she recorded Bob Dylan’s ‘All I Really Want to Do’ and it coincided with the release of the same song by The Byrds. By 1965 Sonny and Cher finally decided to record under that name and released ‘I Got You Babe’ in the summer of that year. It became their signature song. Featuring members of ‘The Wrecking Crew’, in studio it was a simple but solid recording. Sonny Bono described it as a response to the bitter Bob Dylan classic, ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’. The song rose rapidly to #1 and is considered one of the great duets of all time. By the late ’60s and early ’70s Sonny and Cher’s recording popularity began to fade and their life act took a beating but a strange thing happened. When the shows turned negative the crowd began to heckle. Cher would fight back and Sonny would admonish Cher on stage for engaging. Cher then turned on Sonny and…the crowd loved it. The sense of timing and humour grabbed the attention of TV people and before they knew it Sonny and Cher began a three year run on the ‘Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour’ which is memorable for the fact Sonny became the target of Cher’s jibes, and Cher tested the limits of the era’s fashion. The self deprecating humour was a hit for a while, reaching 30 million viewers, and it gave some life support to their recording career. Ultimately it was all too much to handle and the couple would separate and divorce by the mid ’70s. From that time on Cher would become romantically linked to such major artists and figures as David Geffen, Gregg Allman, Gene Simmons, Ron Duguay and Richie Sambora. By the 1980s, Cher would turn more toward acting with brilliant roles in ‘Silkwood’, ‘Mask’, ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘The Witches of Eastwick’. As the whirlwind continued, through her association with David Geffen, Cher would become a mega selling recording artist again. In 1998 she released the vomit inducing ‘Believe’ that despite its obvious studio vocal treatments sold staggering amounts of records.

Enough about Cher…back to Sonny. After his marriage to Cher dissolved Bono turned more to acting and was seen in shows like ‘Fantasy Island’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’ and ‘Chips’. I remember him as an ‘Alice Cooper’ style wannabe shock rocker who had fallen on hard times in an episode of, (get this) ‘The Love Boat’, where he was the cruise entertainment. The Love Boat crew managed to get him back on the straight and narrow over his week with them. So heartwarming. Great stuff!

Interestingly, where Sonny Bono may have made his biggest contribution is actually in politics. By the late ’80s, Bono who was never too politically aware became frustrated with local politics in Palm Springs. He ran for Mayor and won. He served a four year term which among other things saw the origin of the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The event is still held each year in his memory. In 1992 he ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S senate. He lost, but his foot was in the door, and in 1994 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Perhaps is biggest contribution was co-sponsoring a House bill regarding ‘copyright’ which extended ‘rights’ or ‘terms’ of copyright to 20 years. This finally passed after his death in 1998 and it is still referred to as the ‘Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act’.

Just a couple of quick things before I go.

Sonny Bono is ‘godfather’ to Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis. Kiedis remembers hanging out with his father, along with Sonny and Cher, and in his biography he relates the story of being ‘babysat’ by Cher as an adolescent in the early ’70s, lying in bed together watching TV. Kiedis recalls drifting off to sleep as Cher got out of bed and removed her clothes to put on her nightgown.

“There was a woman’s naked body, and it was long and slender and special and just thrilling.”

Anthony Kiedis

She then got back into bed and the two slept side by side. The moment obviously resonated with the rambunctious front man.

‘I Got You Babe’ also has a connection to the idiosyncratic movie ‘Groundhog Day’ that starred Bill Murray and Andie McDowell. Every morning Murray (Phil Connors) would wake up to the the song on his clock radio and go through the motions of doing a report on ‘Groundhog Day’ in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The weatherman ends up in a time loop and hilarity ensues. It also becomes very dark, and lo and behold it has a happy ending when the initially cynical and depressed Phil Connors transforms and ends up with the beautiful ‘Rita’ who was played by the enchanting Andie McDowell.

Unfortunately Sonny Bono’s productive life came to a tragic end in 1998 when he crashed into a tree while skiing at a Lake Tahoe resort. Cher gave the eulogy at his funeral. His headstone reads ‘And the Beat Goes On’.

So after all that I have arrived to the the reason for selecting ‘I Got You Babe’ on this day. In 1985 UB40 and Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders (there’s that name again) recorded a version of this song and it hit #1 on this day 33 years ago. Two years later it would also appear on The Pretenders compilation album ‘Singles’. UB40 is a cool band and Chrissie Hynde is a sensational vocalist, so this rendition was destined for greatness. She just grooves. Here you go. Enjoy!