… on Ready Steady Go with the lovely Cathy McGowan as Cher and Brian Jones as Sonny.

Then everyone as either one.

Good Fun!

antgimel

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Bob: I was Sonny & Cher’s first agent. I signed them to William Morris when I was just a baby agent. All my colleagues told me not to do it, except Harvey Kresky, who later became their manager. We had heard ‘I GotYou Babe.’ I was a TV agent and my accounts were scale television and game shows. This made Shindig my show.

One day The Rolling Stones were on the stage singing Satisfaction, and I was watching from the wings. Then an anomaly occurred, the three hundred kids in the audience were ignoring the Stones and calling to someone in the wings in front of me. It was Sonny Bono, I had never seen nor heard of him, but the kids loved him.

Making a long story very short, We signed them to the Morris Office. A month later they had 5 singles in the Billboard top 100. Now what happened in that month is an even better story.

Sonny was a really smart, really nice guy and Cher was even sweeter. Hartmann

John Hartmann

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Sonny, one of my dearest friends. He and his wife Susie and I were skiing at Heavenly the day my Mom passed away. He fell that day and tore the ligaments in his right hand. Every time we went skiing he tore or broke or sprained something. Salvatore Philip Bone was a horrible skier and that’s how he met his demise. But he was a lovely, caring, loving man. RIP Sonny Bono.

Val Garay

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That record saved Atlantic Records. The company was for sale. Their sale to ABC for a paltry $3 million fell apart because the label couldn’t warrant they had paid all their royalties. Wexler was playing footsie with Leiber and Stoller over a merger (to Ahmet’s horror) because their Red Bird Records was hotter than Atlantic by a mile. Ahmet bought the master for $5000 over the phone without ever having heard it and “I Got You Babe” became the biggest hit in Atlantic history, not just No. 1 in this country but a worldwide smash the company had never seen before.

Joel Selvin

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And in one of the more incredible stats of 1965, the Billboard number one song of the year, which, by the way, only got to number two but was the first American artist to sell a million copies of a single since the beginning of the British Invasion, was Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs “Wooly Bully”!

It stayed in the top 5 for 2 months.

Side note. I once asked Bill Graham what was the worst act to ever play the Fillmore West. His response:

By far, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs.

John French

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The absolute best cover of the song (of many) for me was watching post-Ziggy Bowie duet with Marianne Faithfull (who was wearing a nun’s habit and huge wimple…open at the back, as I clearly remember – she looked utterly fabulous) at the Marquee Club in London, 1973. Fan Club only audience, and not packed by any means. Utter magic – although I missed Woody Woodmansey. Recorded for American TV.  A very special thing, and everybody in the room knew it. I floated home afterwards.

Hugo Burnham

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I always liked Sonny & Cher, especially “I Got You Babe” and “Baby Don’t Go.”  And I liked Sonny’s solo “Laugh At Me,” even have the album.  And I have the “Ringo I Love You” novelty single, well sung by Cher under the name Bonnie Joe Mason, co-written by Phil Spector with Anders & Poncia, possibly produced by Phil or maybe actually Sonny.   Sonny was all over the place back then, doing anything and everything to be in the music biz: songwriting, playing on sessions, producing, plugging records.  Whatever it took to make it in the music business. And then he met Cher, and he recognized that diamond in the rough, and without him, who knows what might have never happened.  She put in the hours also, singing on any project and for anyone who let her.  Together, what they created was real, not artifice.

Toby Mamis

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I saw a lot of Cher during her marriage to Gregg Allman and I remember the swarms of National Inquirer reporters and photogs who followed them constantly. I had to hire a security guy which we had never done previously. She was always very kind and generous and she came to Gregg’s funeral. I don’t think Gregg ever stopped loving her. A funny aside… when “Ramblin’ Man” made it to to #2 on the Billboard singles chart, Cher was at #1! (I think I am remembering that correctly).

Willie Perkins

P.S. I looked it up. Cher’s “Halfbreed” was #1 when ABB’s “Ramblin Man” was #2.

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At 13 years old, I  saw Sonny and Cher sing  (no doubt lip sync) “I Got You Babe” on tv via The Lloyd Thaxton Show.  Yep, Sonny was wearing that fur vest and I remember thinking Cher was really nice looking! And yes, I know every word and sing along every time I hear the song.

Rob Evans

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When I was 12, I’d drop in at the Sunset Blvd office of managers Greene & Stone. “Are Sonny and Cher here?” They always seemed to be; it was a cool hang. One day, coming home from guitar lessons, a white car pulled over on Selma. It was Sonny- he asked about the guitar and encouraged me to keep with the lessons. It was so special to be recognized by this warm and sweet man. Unfortunately, my guitar playing began and ended with a sorry “Tom Dooley.”

Mike Minky

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Bill Murray will forever be linked because of “Groundhog Day”

Marc Platt, Los Angeles

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There’s the power of pop MELODY, which Sonny was skilled at, having witnessed the masters first hand work, he was a good student obviously

And Sonny could write and arrangement.  There is a symphonic feel that was both on-the-way-out yet still contemporary

Then they juxtapose Cher’s musical voice with Sonny’s off register answers and for some odd reason the combination is enchanting, not overpowering, not maudlin.

Dennis Pelowski

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Fall in love, then listen to I GOT YOU BABE.

It takes on a whole other dimension… especially in he midst of a pandemic.

Suzanne “Ponyta” Nuttall

Toronto, Canada

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If you are of a certain age there are a handful of songs you know from the opening licks that you will stop what you are doing and listen all the way through. House of the Rising Sun by the Animals. And yeah, I Got You Babe. The oboe gets your attention but it’s the performance that’s holds you to the end, that and the expression of a need you won’t truly understand until much later in life, the need for a companion to share the ups and downs and to be there all the way until the final act, holding your hand. In the time of Covid-19 when people are forced to die alone that simple image assumes even more poignancy.

George Laugelli

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Just a true great great song.. words, chorus, melody, performers.. im not sure there are many people that don’t know a line or two from it. There was something truly special about their partnership. But, this song was and is the best example of how great a simple 2-3 min song can be.

Chris Anderson

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Time is a lot kinder to their songs than some of their contemporaries. Baby Don’t Go (with that chromatic harp) and You Better Sit Down Kids (which may have been solo Cher) are my two faves.

Dave Murray

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songs of all time with I Got You Babe!!!  That song defined love (and like) in a relationship better that any.  Funny but I also think of Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer as another generation’s follow up.  Once again, the musicianship provided by the Wrecking Crew made I Got You Babe stand out so distinctively on the radio and while Cher carries and belts it, Sonny also did his best vocal job on that song as well.  Not gonna lie, I have been known to belt it out with various friends in a karaoke bar or three over the years __.

Keep hitting those buttons pal and stay healthy!!

Tommy Nast

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Name another duo where the one was elected to Congress and the other was an Oscar winning actress.

Tom Rooney

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Wow!  I think  only a gifted writer such as you could succeed at giving a counter culture authenticity to Sonny and Cher and their top  40 anthem “I got you babe”.  Sonny was a self indulgent promoter . A less offensive version  of Trump. He took Louie Prima and Keely Smith’s popular act from the 50s wrapped it in PG rated hippie attire and offered a safer version of the scary counter culture to  a mass audience, and struck it  rich.   Cher was the talent and the star, Sonny ended up  right where he belonged amidst his grifterpeers in the Republican Party.

alan segal  san diego

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I loved the way she would look at him, sometimes with pure love and sometimes

with a look of laughter, derision, or disbelief.

Van Easton

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“I got you Babe” is the song that Bill Murray wakes to each morning in the movie “Groundhog Day”.

Timeless song.

-Sonny (yes, that is my name) in Phoenix

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Played that song 100 times on the jukebox at Mancinis Pizza. I was 11. Trying “Baby Don’t Go”. It’s my fav. Thanks for the pleasant reminder of those carefree days! Richard King

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Also: that gorgeous oboe!

Steve Lindstrom

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My fave Sonny song, “Needles And Pins”.

Chris Mancini

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Hey Bob,

Maybe you’ll like this version.

Ari Posner

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It’s been the alarm on my phone for years via ground hog day.

Johnny Lloyd Rollins

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I Got You Babe is a great song.  It was the oboe that put it over the top.  The oboe was the hook.

My sister is ten years older than me.  We used to sing the song together.  Of course, she sang Sonny’s lines and I sang Cher’s.

Steve Monk

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Every teenage ‘couple’ at the time had a song that was theirs.  For my first serious teenage girlfriend and I, it was I Got You Babe.

Maybe that’s why it went to number one — all of us teen couples?

R. Lowenstein

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i know where you’re coming from. even the carpenters (THE CARPENTERS!) sound good in retrospect, though we wouldn’t be caught dead admitting it at the time.

rsands9

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In the early 70s when Imus was still an AM DJ in NY, I remember him playing it. After the end, with the fade of I got you babe being repeated several times, he said “Sounds like a disease”. I think of that every time I hear it. hahaha
Kevin Kiley

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The Sonny & Cher original is a nice enough time capsule piece. How often do you hear an oboe in a pop song? It does, though, tend to  smack of hippie commercialization. It might even be the first instance of it.

When I listen to it now, I think of how they always ended their variety show with it.

Give me the frenetic Etta James version any day.

Kind Regards,

John Jordan

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I Got You Babe/Best Version

Al Kooper

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I Got You Babe is a classic example of the cover being better than the original.  Even though the drums are programmed, the UB40 version with Chrissie Hynde has soul – Sonny and Cher’s version is all bubblegum and tinsel.  The Beatles’ Twist and Shout, Judy Collins’ Both Sides Now, Hendrix’s All Along The Watchtower, and James Taylor’s You’ve Got A Friend are other great examples.

I’d love to read your take on covers being the definitive version.  Aretha’s version of Bridge Over Troubled Water, maybe?  Hard to say – the original is so great as well.

Cheers,

Andy Dayes

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As a preadolescent boy watching on TV, I’m seeing this dorky guy and he has CHER. To this day, I think flat abs are very sexy and I suspect that it’s somehow tied to those early images of Cher on TV. So hell yes, I loved that song. “I Got You Babe” was a first fantasy that I didn’t even understand in the moment but it would prove to be unforgettable. As I recall, Gregg Allman was equally stricken.

I could never break down a song the way that you can but for me, this song was number one for a reason and Cher’s belly button was probably the reason. LOL

Mark McLaughlin

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I like the UB40/Chrissie Hynde version.

I was just a kid when that came out and hated it!

Rodney Rowland

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Growing up with the Sonny & Cher show, well it was a big deal in our house. We’d all watch it together, my stepdad would comment on Cher’s outfits. Mom would roll her eyes. We thought Sonny was a loser, but we liked him anyway. We had this TV antennae on a pole by the side of the house that would move when the wind blew and one of the kids had to go out and turn it to get a decent signal. Dad in his recliner directing the turning operation and one of us stuck outside while the show was on trying to get it just right. Hold it! No, back a little. Too far. Back. OK. Then back inside and by then a commercial was on. Reading your piece brought all that back to me, and I can’t help but smile about it.

Jim Warren

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By 1965, my Aunt had given me a couple Chubby Checkers albums, and my Grandmother had gifted me a Beatles single, but the first record I ever bought with my own money was “I Got You Babe.”  You’re right – it was everywhere — and I wanted to own it.  That high oboe, or whatever it was, going “dah dah, dah dah, dah dah…” was the ultimate earworm.  I was also happy to play the flip side,”It’s Gonna Rain,” over and over again.  What I remember when I saw them on TV was that Cher was pretty and they dressed “young.”  It didn’t register at all that Sonny was that much older than Cher — they looked like a couple in love.

Everyone had a soft-spot for “I Got You Babe” — Bowie performed it with Marianne Faithfull in 1973 for the 1980 Floor Show — him wearing red PVC and black ostrich plumes, and her sporting the Flying Nun’s wimple, and a habit with no arms and nothing on underneath.  (I bought the bootleg of that, and it’s NOT one I play much!)

Even Joey Ramone & Holly Beth Vincent (of Holly & The Italians) put out their single of it in 1982.

And even though you didn’t watch it, Sonny & Cher closed their TV show each week with a bit of their signature song.

I’m glad you finally came around and re-experienced it.

Here’s a clip of Sonny & Cher performing “I Got You Babe” on Top Of The Pops.  This time, Cher’s wearing the fur vest.  It takes me back to ’65.  And I still have the single.

Mark Helfrich

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I was sixteen and came down from Liverpool to stay with a friend in London for the weekend.

Walking around London we saw two very exotic looking people coming down the steps of a hotel. They were being escorted by large fit-looking gentleman in slick dark electric blue Italian suits, white shirts black ties. I thought the exotics must be a prince and princess from some South American country although I was fairly sure that most South American countries did not have princes and princesses. They were too clean for Rock and Roll. To exotic and cool for show biz. The suits got the couple into an awaiting black limo, checking out roof tops in this quiet London street as they did so in a similar way that Trump would be gotten into a car outside a hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The said couple were wafted off into the sun-streamed afternoon.

That night we went to the Marquee to see The Spencer Davis Group. We then realised that as part of the deal was that we had to stand through a one hour ‘Live from the Marquee’ Radio London radio show. It was hosted by DJ Pete Murray. Several act just did one number each. I can only remember two of them. One, a girl duo,  was called ‘The Two of US’. The other act closed the show. Our South American prince and princess came onto the stage. It was Sonny and Cher. It was the first I had heard of them. They sang I got You Babe (to track!). It was the first time I had heard the song too. I don’t know if it had been released yet. This was a promo visit. They  had some pizzaz – Cher more than Sonny but it seemed like it was probably going to be a catchy, slightly cheesy one-hit wonder if it was ever going to be a hit. It had the best chance of the Radio London’s  offerings that night.

With our hour of penance watching floor managers hold up huge boards with ‘Applause’ written on them out of the way, the gig we had come to see was allowed to proceed. The support was The Mark Leeman Five, a very good band with Brian ‘Blinky’ Davison on drums before joining the Nice. Sadly Mark Leeman subsequently died in a car crash. A  great warm-up for a great Spencer Davis Group set. When we thought all was done, various members of the Mark Leeman five came back on stage to jam with the Spencer Davis Group.  This allowed Steve Winwood to move from guitar to keyboards, harmonica and vocals with always someone available to cover the instrument he had just vacated. The jam session really began to pick up pace with renditions of R&B classics (R&B in the old sense). A number of musos had turned up to see Spencer Davis that night and started to join in the jam for a number or two. They included Eric Clapton, Erick Burdon and Chris Barber (trombone). They greatest jam session that I have ever, ever witnessed. Who M.D.’ed this and held it all wonderfully together? Seventeen year-old Steve Winwood.

What a night. All stated off with the curious and quirky appearance of a totally unknown Sonny & Cher.

Mike Lowe

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My big brother, seven years older, had this record. He moved out shortly after my mom remarried and he and my stepfather didn’t get along. Bill was just eighteen. He didn’t take his records right away.
I was just turning eleven and my friend Renee and I played these records everyday after school in my empty apartment. Beatles, Stones, Animals, Yardbirds, Them.

We’d finagled our moms to buy us those white leather go-go boots, and we’d dance until we fell down on the carpet, panting and sweaty. Roll Over Beethoven!
We were entranced by the Sonny & Cher record though, playing it over and over. Yep, the idea of having a forever best friend who understood you and was there for you, no matter what, even if you owned next to nothing?

Their hair and clothes signaled they were different from the rest of the pop acts. The liner notes and photos on the back of the record proved it. They had headshots of their crew. They all looked like latter day beatniks, as did Sonny & Cher except S & C were so polished, camera ready. These grainy B&B images showed real beatniks who were scruffy, unsmiling, dead serious about – whatever they were about! Being the essential peeps behind the scenes of S&C, their real friends. S&C supposedly wrote the notes under each one. A woman with probably one name was basically described as “not having worn shoes for the past year, and probably won’t this year” and I never forgot that. Actually embraced barefooted style as much as I could get away from it because it seemed this woman had higher principles, that what mattered most to her was beyond surface appearances. They planted the seed for my future hippie self.

Yep, that wall of sound made that song pop, that carnival my, pied piper organ sound, and I recall Val telling me about hanging around the Phil’s studio then, watching Sonny create his future. Who knew he’d become a congressman and die running into a tree on skis, and Cher would live on to rescue the loneliest elephant in the world during a pandemic? Life is scary and also pretty outrageous.

Melissa Ward

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You got it right except for a few things ~ I can remember all the girls at school trying their best to look like Cher ~ Cutting bangs and ironing the curls out of their hair ~ The school jocks got those girls first ~ The rest of us were stuck with the left overs ~

You don’t as far as I’m concern give enough credit to Sonny for the lessons learned from working with Phil Spector because he took those lesson and formulated it into the Sonny & Cher sound and took it all to the bank ~

Also I don’t know how Sonny did it but some how back in 1967 he got ABC Motion Pictures ( they made all those horrible Surf movies ) to produce a movie for them called “Good Times” just as all their star power was fading ~

They were never my cup of tea back in the day but they did manage to fall from grace as I remember it seems that  back when everyone was smoking pot and taking LSD they came out against drugs ~ I remember thats when they looked like our elders and not one of us ~

In all actuality they did manage to have the last laugh in the 70s with there TV show ~ They made a lot of money and were once again America’s little darling ~

RS ~

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Now go back and give Cher’s (solo) version of All I Really Want To Do another shot.   You won’t be sorry.

I’m a Gen X’r. Grew up with the 70’s Cher,.. the one that invented that Eddie Vedder affectation that was so big with all the late era grungers.

Not a peak in her creative journey,… but when I discovered teenage 60’s Cher when I was a teenager myself in the mid 80’s,… boy was that a revelation.

I guess she was imitating Sonny, which as you will see listening to All I Really Want To Do, she was able to sing both the male and female parts by herself.  But man did she take her mentors idea and go somewhere entirely of her own. Somewhere tough and ballsy and totally female, empowered teenage female.  That’s probably what I fell in love with when I was a teenage boy in the era of Debby G and Tiffany. Both fine in their own right but not in the same league.

Steve McDonald

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For those too young to remember this pre-FM era could have a Stones song, followed by Frank Sinatra’s STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT, to the Dave Clark Five, to We Five,  to the Temptations,  to Sonny and Cher……

Look at those Top 40 lists from that time.  You would think you’d be sharing the radio with your parents.

It’s a mix tape before mix tape.

Tom Rooney

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haha. Bob, I saw them sing it at my first concert. my dad dropped me and two friends off for the WOR FM Birthday party at the Village Theatre which became Fillmore East. they may have been first, we didn’t go to see them. The Doors headlined and closed, blew the roof off and my mind. here’s some of the line up I remember:
Sonny and Cher
Janis Ian
The Blues Project
The Chambers Brothers
Richie Havens
The Doors

i googled the dj’s,
Jim Lounsbury
Johnny Michaels
Scott Muni
Murray The K
Rosko

Owen

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glad you finally got this one bob!

Peter Noone