Guest post by Nathan Arizona
The pop duo Sonny & Cher are kind of a joke these days, an outdated idea kept alive by Cher’s confounding screen career and a couple of persistent hit songs. To tell the truth, they were kind of a joke even in the ’60s when they were big stars, if only for Sonny’s fur vest. They seemed kind of hip if you didn’t look too hard.
But their sales figures were no joke, and Sonny Bono was no joke as a musician. He learned his craft from the great “wall of sound” producer Phil Spector, who later took a bad turn in his personal life and, not to put too fine a point on it, murdered a woman he brought home one night.
When Sonny later made his own quasi-Laurel Canyon folk-pop records with Cher he hired musicians from the Wrecking Crew, the now-famous group of top L.A. session players. He was also a hustler who knew how to talk his way into an opportunity when he needed to.
Cher, 11 years younger, was around the Spector studio as an occasional backup singer. Sonny noticed her, married her and created an act that depicted him as the clueless one. They went from hit songs to a successful network TV show to starring on the Las Vegas strip.
After their divorce Cher became a pop icon for her glitzy music performances and a surprising ability transform herself into regular human beings on the movie screen. Just watch her in “Moonstruck.” Shaggy-haired Sonny got himself elected mayor of Palm Springs in 1987 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994. He died in a 1998 skiing accident.
“I Got You Babe,” written by Sonny like all their songs, made them stars right out of the gate. It topped the 1965 Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and also hit No. 1 in the UK. A follow-up, “The Beat Goes On,” reached No. 6 a year later. Bill Murray’s character in “Groundhog Day” woke up to “I Got You Babe” on the radio every morning as he lived the same day over and over. He woke up to it the next day, too.
“I Got You Babe” was seen as a response to Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.” Where Dylan was snarky, Sonny and Cher were, you might say, sappy. The instrumentation featured an ocarina. Here they are being groovy.
When Cher needed a new partner, she turned to Beavis and Butthead.
Here’s the song in “Groundhog Day.” You can listen to it just once or you can put it on repeat.
