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VISIT
Sonny Bono
Laugh At Me
ATCO Home Page
&
Cher
ATCO
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3614 Jackson Highway
"Inside outside upside down"...Salvatore Phillip Bono's 1967 visionary lyrics emerge to defy their obscurity in the new millennium. Though the miracle of modern science 'Inner Views', his only solo album, has been saved from the crumbly fate of tape disintegration. Thus, here along with the other Atco Sonny Bono product he recorded with Cher, we get a chance to look eye-to-eye with Phil Spector's unlikely Italian-American protege and see this man on his own contrasting terms.
Prior to the October 1967 release of 'Inner Views', Sonny had seen more than a decade of knocking around recording studios as a promotion man, percussionist, background singer and as the writer of a few cool hits like The Searchers "Needles and Pins" and The Righteous Brothers "Ko-Ko Jo". His session apprenticeship work with Phil Spector is well documented and a fabled part of rock history. By 1967 and the release of his first -and only- solo LP 'Inner Views', Sonny had experienced phenomenal duet success as Sonny And Cher in 1965 with the ubiquitous "I Got You Babe", "Baby Don't Go", and a string of memorable folk-rock hits.
Back in the 1950s and early 1960s Sonny had cut some records by himself under several aliases. These nom-pour-l'enregistrements included Don Christy, Ronnie Summers and Sonny Christy making his anthem "Laugh at Me" a tad bit of a little white lie when he sang the line "I never thought I'd cut a record by myself". Forlorn over a voice that was sharply nasal and therefore limited he virtually always let his compositions and lyrics come alive through Cher's powerful pipes as well as a host of other performers. However, with the top ten 1965 protest solo vehicle "Laugh at Me", Sonny planted the seed for inner fulfillment and a solo career.
'Inner Views' did not exactly pick the most commercial moment to emerge. Sonny was hot with "Laugh At Me" in 1965; thus, it appears that a two-year lapse before he put out his solo LP effort was a factor in the lack of commercial interest in the product. In later years Sonny spoke little of this endeavor and his personal slant on the project. He displayed befuddled amusement on his solo work. His real confidence was as a writer, producer, and director.
Actually, 'Inner Views' also contradicts the mythology that during the latter 1960s Cher was the only one of the duo that wanted to do a more serious, artsy album appealing to the hip crowd. Sonny's solo outing certainly panders to and attempts to join the Sgt. Pepper's/Revolver Generation combining sitars with the layered percussion of The Wall Of Sound, at least The Wall Of Sound Sonny-style. Sonny had expressed his love for the Beatles writing in a 1967 interview with Texas DJ Hank Moore. His favorite Beatles's composition was 'Yesterday'. Sonny displays plenty of studio panache on the more complex compositions here, and is obviously happy to be at the helm of this long hoped for solo stint, applying textured woodwinds, sitars and percussion. The remastered edition of 'Inner Views' is excitingly dimensional.
In the cuts "I Just Sit There" and "Pammie's On a Bummer" Sonny takes us into his version of the psychedelic age. On the abbreviated single addition of 'Pammie' Sonny negates the excessive intro of the original that is actually a bombastic demonically delicious psychedelic cartoon. In 'I Just Sit There' he paints a Far Eastern paisley print environment of an acid experience: "The world looks like a little ball, and people don't exist at all, oh wow!" In the lurid saga "Pammie's On a Bummer" he pontificates, pointing a chiding finger at the drug culture and how it victimizes the young and innocent. He sounds so preachy in tone on this jaded melodrama that it is a surprise that it didn't appear as the theme song for the anti-drug public service movie he later narrated for American schools in the 1970s. This epic prophesied his later-day 80's-90's conservative Republican political career.
'Inner Views' is nothing if eclectic. Sonny seems to yearn back to his Fifties roots with the cut "I Would Marry You Today" which seems more appropriate for a Frankie Laine type of ballad singer. (In his 1991 autobiography, Sonny had espoused that he was a great fan of Laine.) Unfortunately, his very traditional view on male-female relationships is in contrast to his then-desire to make a hip LP. The lack of coherent focus on the LP may have been because Sonny had his hands in too many pies: movie involvement as well as Cher's solos career and their duet efforts. Perhaps Sonny was sorting out the issues that faced his career relevancy.
Sonny also includes the upbeat 1950s double-date pre-rap ditty "My Best Friend's Girl Is Out Of Sight". This song also has a rhythm and blues cool-jerk soul type of sound. Sonny had an ear for picking up influences and applying them creatively. The Atlantic rhythm and blues feel of 'My Best Friend's Girl is Out of Sight' transplants successfully to a latter 1968 Atco Sonny and Cher single "Good Combination" in both rhythm arrangement and feel. "I Told My Girl To Go Away" seems to owe something in feeling and tempo to the Beatles's "She's Leaving Home" except in Sonny's telling it's the boyfriend who's leaving the jilted innocent. Once again the melodrama is as strong as in the many Italianesque tearjerkers -such as "Bang Bang" and "You Better Sit Down Kids"- which he wrote for Cher during this same period.
Sonny attempts mightily to be The Most Hip and One Of The Boys on 'Inner Views' and the original cover artwork reflects this objective and the content. Sonny as machismo, perched authoritatively in a chair with feminine specter Cher evaporating in homage to his right. Hallucinations emerge from the scratchboard border. Bono's one-on-one monologue narrative approach to the songs is direct and contrasts noticeably to the airy waltz-like dialogues on the Atco Sonny and Cher records. 'Inner Views' has a direct in-your-face approach. Some of the pan-European gypsy-like instrumentation, first heard on Sonny & Cher duet singles such as "Little Man" and "Love Don't Come", are even found on this album longest cut, the opening "I Just Sit There". One wonders how this varied array of songs ended up as one statement. However, they provide a glimpse into a man who was creative, daring and ruthless to stay contemporary. Sonny reveals insecurity in that he aims to please two camps, the hippies and the squares.
The other cuts included on this compilation are the original versions of Sonny's two mid sixties solo singles, "Laugh at Me" and "The Revolution Kind". "Laugh at Me", his greatest and only commercial solo hit, is alive and kicking in it's plaintive Dylanesque folk-rock whining "I gotta be me" delivery. It suits Sonny perfectly and is delivered with sincere protest conviction. The semi-apologetic "The Revolution Kind" is rollicking and vital. Sonny's voice was never more naturally suited to a song, though, in the end, it paled in sales to "Laugh at Me", and seemed to foreshadow Sonny's limited run as a top 40 solo act. The era of the protest song was already over. It had lasted a few short months and peaked in 1965 with "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire. On the second version of "Laugh at Me" on this collection, taken from the second Atco Sonny and Cher LP 'The Wondrous World Of Sonny & Cher', Sonny substitutes the word "anyplace" for "anywhere" in the lyrics. Hardly revelatory, but a collector's issue all the same. Sonny's blues influenced B-sides are notorious for using the term "quetzal" which, by the way, is the name of a South American bird. These odd instrumentals were intended to keep people from ripping off -and re-recording- legitimate b-side material of the artist. This was a trick of the trade he learned from Spector.
Sonny's solo work ranges from the jangling bizarre to the rather brilliant. His covers of two other songwriters of the era are simultaneously rich in feeling and tasteful in delivery. Bob Lind's "Cheryl's Goin' Home" is an almost autobiographical song with a moving train-like rhythm and a haunting orchestral accompaniment. The tender "Misty Roses", a Tim Hardin composition, is a perfect vehicle for Sonny's strong phrasing and limited vocal range. Cher has confessed that Sonny taught her to phrase and these songs show that he well possessed that strength. Both of these covers originated on the Sonny and Cher third Atco release 'In Case You're In Love' but were issued as Atco singles, like all of the singles tracks on this collection, over only Sonny's name.
It has been more than thirty years since Sonny recorded 'Inner Views'. In later years he did produce a few more solo singles on MCA and an independent label called Sunshine, but the efforts were few and far between. His most productive period as a writer-producer had been his 60?s output solo and with Cher. His more concentrated beat went on to television variety program success and failure, with and without Cher. He became a restaurateur and, then, the mayor of Palm Springs. Ironically the man with the bobcat vest who penned "Laugh At Me" then took his 'Inner Views' all the way to the House Of Representatives of Congress of the United States. His sudden passing in a skiing accident in January of 1998 has aroused more interest in his writing and recording legacy, making this limited edition collection a valuable chronicle of his solo recordings as well as a rock and roll collector's investment.
The year of 1965 was truly a memorable one in popular music history. The new musical variations spilling from top 40 radio were a burst of unbridled energy. Being 12 at the time, it is hard to know if I can ever be truly objective, but music I recall was filled with joyful creativity. Some of the new folk rock sounds were by the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful and Sonny and Cher. There was a bit of a lull in the British Invasion. Folk-rock was born.The west coast was jumping with musical possibilities. We were standing at a precipice of a movement to the left in the youth culture, that was destined to change moods more mercurially than a comet shooting us to the end of the decade. Sonny and Cher were on that roller coaster, and what a ride was had!
Sonny Bono, a songwriter, and record promotion man for such stars as Sam Cooke and Little Richard, was 30 at the time, hardly a teenager or a youth. Bono had been born in Michigan in 1935, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams. He had been a truck driver prior to knocking around Hollywood's Gold Star studio in Los Angeles, an eager promoter and protege of the Phil Spector Wall of Sound during its coveted pop heyday. For a time he had been an A&R man at Specialty Records. At Specialty, he penned the flip side of a Larry Williams single, "Short Fat Fanny" a song titled, "High School Dance". The song charted, and elevated Sonny to producer status. His songwriting was his main passion, but Sonny had always dreamed of being a performer. However he was very aware of his limitations as a singer. As a writer he had penned with co-writer Jack Nitzsche, the hit "Needles and Pins," initially a mild success for talented singer songwriter and friend Jackie DeShannon, and later a major hit by the British group, the Searchers. Later Cher would cover the song on her hit debut LP, "All I Really Want To Do."
Sonny also penned the Righteous Brothers' "Koko Joe." No one at Gold Star Studio, including Phil Spector, Darlene Love of the Crystals or Ronnie Bennett Spector of the Fabulous Ronettes, could ever imagine that subservient, background singer percussionist and coffee gofer, Sonny Bono would in a short time take a miraculous beeline to the dizzying heights of pop stardom. He with his talented protege Cher, would jump the crest of the folk rock movement and ride the wave to the top.
Sonny was a gentle presence and a shrewd observer. He was hungry and ready to do whatever he could to rise above his meager status. His apparent humility earned him a trusted position at Gold star. Later on he would describe how he watched, imitated and eventually synthesized what he took in during those days with his mentor.
Mr. Bono and his considerably younger girlfriend, Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre, met on a double date in 1962. Ironically the dates were not with each other. Cher was born in 1946 in El Centro California and left school early to live with girl friends in LA., where she met Sonny in a coffee shop called Aldos, next door to KFWB-then L.A.'s hottest top forty radio station. Sonny got the fledging girl a job at Gold star singing backup for Spector records. The two paired musically and privately. They moved in together. Sonny felt Cher had a commercially viable singing voice. He decided to collaborate with Cher on some vinyl outings of their own. This was met with some measure of success, but nothing to indicate the American dream that was on its way. A first outing in this area was a 1963 release called "The Letter," a cover of a Tom and Dewey record (a black recording duo that Sonny knew, befriended and promoted.). Tom and Dewey were an inspiration for the Righteous Brothers' blue-eyed soul sound. In fact both groups recorded "Koko Joe." "The Letter" was released under their first pseudonym, Caesar and Cleo, a take off on the mid 60s Burton- Taylor hysteria: Cher the sinuous, kohl-eyelined Cleo, and Sonny with his large nose, short Italian stature, Bonaparte strange looks, sporting a Caesar hair style. Cher lovingly and humorously described in her moving eulogy at Sonny's funeral in January 1998, that Sonny had indeed told her that he was a descendent of Napoleon, and that his family had shortened that name when they arrived in this country. "The Letter" was no big splash; though it did offer some compatible blending between Sonny and Cher, showing some unique harmonics. Ahmet Ertegun described it as being a "special blend." He mentioned that Sonny's voice was not a great voice, but it was truly successful when in unison with Cher's. The sound they created was mysteriously bigger than two mere voices. Call it chemistry. Regardless, the sound on "The Letter" was seriously dated during the British Invasion period of its release in June 1964.
Sonny had introduced Cher to Spector in '63 and Cher at this time was also a session singer for Spector, making what she had quoted in later years as $2.50 per gig! Her voice was so powerful she was ordered to sing behind the other singers so as not to upstage the productions. During this period, Sonny eagerly convinced Spector to record his exotic girlfriend's powerful solo contralto. The collaboration was a Spector embarrassment and an undignified vocal debut for Cher. Luckily, she recorded under the name of Bonnie Jo Mason. It was a Beatles novelty rip-off called "Ringo, I Love You" on the Annette label. Cher has said, no one bought the record as her low voice was thought to be a boy. In actuality, it was just a stupid record, hardly recognizable as a Spector production. It was a noisy, jangling, undisciplined rip-off, that ironically now sells for $1,000.00 because it is Cher's first and rarest recording, as well as a Spector collectible and a Beatles Novelty collectible.
Phil seemed more interested in delegating Cher to the buried background on his Wall of Sound recordings! However, Sonny was intent on his challenge, as he saw the star power innate in his young lover. Under the Caesar and Cleo name, they released three tracks when Reprise Records offered the duo a contract of sorts. First they did cover versions of "Do You Wanna Dance," "Love is Strange," "Let the Good Times Roll," and a couple of Bono-penned instrumentals. None of the records were break-through material. "Love is Strange" had a driving fresh upbeat sound, and rivaled the definitive Mickey and Sylvia version with its coy dramatic dialogue exchange. This is where Caesar and Cleo address each other, "Oh Caesar, how do you call your lover girl?"
Sonny penned the memorable "Baby Don't Go," for Reprise which Spector liked so much he bought half the royalties to aid Bono in his personal financing woes. "Baby, Don't Go" became a mild West Coast hit, fueling some touring and offering some cash relief. The record had an amazing freshness, offering Cher's trumpeting rich voice, garnished with mandolin and a racing harmonica riff. It set the stage for a series of hits to come. Its' message was a teen lament of the most innocent sort. Cher sang a first person account of a young girl leaving a small town discontent with her lot, and prepared to make it in the big city. It was actually a Cher inspired biography, written by Sonny. This autobiographical approach was the beginning of their personal connection to their teenage public. Sonny and Cher were becoming a hot property. The single fueled offers from Atco Records and Imperial, a subsidiary of Liberty Records. An unusual deal was worked out. Cher would record solo for Imperial and the duo would put their stamp on Atco. Cher's first outing was the triple-dubbed Sonny Bono produced "Dream Baby," which she released as Cherilyn on Imperial. It was Spector influenced, and a clanging euphoric Wall of Sound single, but, alas, it was closer to early 60s girl-group than Carnaby Street and never made the charts. All her following solo records would be under the name that made her famous... simply, Cher.
The first Atco release was the tender ballad "Just You." The record had a "Baby, I Love You" - type pacing, immersed in a deep layered wall of sound, with a glowing alto vocal by Cher. The Sonny and Cher harmonies were seamless, romantic and sincere, with Sonny on the high ends and Cher on the low, just as Dick and Dee Dee before them. Dick and Dee Dee were the king and queen of the 60's rock television show 'Shindig' circa 1963-4. Sonny has been quoted that Dick and Dee Dee were more regularly on Shindig than he and Cher because they weren't as grungy, though the image paid off for S & C in the long run. Unfortunately, Dick and Dee Dee became history fast with the release of "I Got You Babe." "Just You" became a minor Los Angeles hit. The momentum was building.
Meanwhile, Sonny and Cher put their efforts into a tune that Bono felt was his destiny. One evening in the summer of 1965, he wrote the folk-rock tune "I Got You Babe." It was penned on a piece of cardboard, Cher, listened to the song and held the words to her heart and pledged she'd save the original words forever. The couple was ecstatic and took it to Ahmet Ertegun, their signer at Atlantic. He appeared disinterested and loved the flip side, "It's Gonna Rain," an amusing barefoot pop-tribal ditty where the Bonos wail for thunder like a couple of Beat Generation wackos, crying for relief from drought and God knows what else! The record still brings primal tears to my eyes. Sonny was certain that "I Got You Babe" were the hit. He put all his promotional energies into getting LA's disc jockeys to play "Babe" instead of the label plug side.. Ironically, Imperial released Cher's "All I Really Want To Do" a week before "Babe," and it was their first Billboard-charted record. "Babe" surpassed Cher's Dylan cover, though she miraculously beat the popular Byrds' version on the charts. "I Got You Babe" was on constant rotation, the love song of the year, and in no time was burning up the charts here and abroad. It became a number one hit in the U.S. for three weeks and sold three million copies. The record featured an easygoing flower-power pace, a message that love conquers adversity, and a terrific oboe arrangement by Harold Battiste.
Sonny and Cher were at least as much visual as aural. They, like the title of their September '65 LP, "Look at Us," demanded that all look at them and we undoubtedly did! They courted by this time an outrageous caveman-hippie type of image, garish and outlandish. Sonny was a draped in bobcat vest, dyed thermals and Eskimo boots. Cher, in her Cleopatra eyeliner and her straight black hair, inspiring teenage imitations. On the bold red cover of "Look At Us," they engaged us head-on, and it is as fresh an image as the counterculture 60's had offered thus far. Cher sported bell-bottom trousers before anyone noteworthy in America. She was a fashion trendsetter years before her infamous glamorous alliance with Bob Mackie. Cher inspired hordes of young women to use an iron on their hair, to achieve her look. What a cool alternative to Sandra Dee! She fostered an interest in the poor boy; a woman's styled informal pull over shirt. She was also the lowest-voiced female on popular record and instantly trademarked. Dark and exotic Cher proved to be an alternative role model for young girls all over the listening arena from the USA to Australia. Adults looked on with disbelief, and read accounts of the duo being tossed out of restaurants and hotels, fueling interest and publicity on shores near and far. Meanwhile, Sonny's Dylanesque record "Laugh at Me" lamented the hippie dilemma going on in the Sonny and Cher saga, when he and Cher were tossed out of their favorite LA-based Italian eatery for causing a commotion with their outrageous hair and clothes. The man who threw them out of his restaurant, Tony Riccio, years later lived right across from Bono, who by that time was mayor of Palm Springs. Sonny thought that rather funny as well as ironic and forgave Riccio, understanding his predicament at the time. Anyway, now he was Riccio's mayor!
When one thinks about it, if Dylan had never hit, it's doubtful that Sonny Bono would have had a career as a singer. Though in "Laugh at Me," Sonny says he never cut a record by himself, he was actually a frustrated veteran recording artist and had cut at least six solo efforts. He sported several aliases, and had cut several singles over the years prior to Cher. None of the name changes could change his voice, and none of his singles hit. Two of his names were Ronnie Summers and Sonny Christy; the surname of the later adopted from his daughter by first wife, Donna. Many of the arrangements on "Look At Us" pay homage to Dylan-era folk music as well as Sonny's Dylan nasal vocal sound. Sonny had a good ear for phrasing though, and he was the coach behind Cher s dominant vocals in their 60's music output. Dylan paved the way for men with little vocal talent to be accepted by the general public. He personally set the rules that the Byrds and Sonny and Cher benefited from. Dylan appreciated Cher's unaffected readings of his songs, and considered writing some tunes just for her. Bono's "Laugh At Me" was followed by "The Revolution Kind," but despite its better rocking rhythm, and supreme Dylan imitation, it never charted. The protest song had become old news already, after about three months, causing Sonny to put off a great solo career! Meanwhile Cher continued recording many Dylan covers over at Imperial, and was arguably his best female interpreter. Her strongest Dylan cover is possibly her version of "Masters of War," a song on her last Imperial LP "Back Stage."
During the "Look At Us" period, Sonny and Cher were at their artistic peak. They were at home in the folk-rock genre and were committed to the image of the congenial hip outcasts and spokespeople for misunderstood teens. All their records went by this theme. "Look at Us" sported four Bono originals, including Sonny's "Sing C 'Est La Vie," a French Mother Goose novelty ditty, that charted instead of it's flip side, "Just You" in Australia and England. "The Letter" is featured here, as well as the castanets enhanced cover of "Then He Kissed Me," a lonely and enchanting "500 Miles" and a plaintiff understated Cher solo of "Unchained Melody." Some of Cher's vocals on "Look At Us" are her most nasal, and I remember reading some years ago this was due in part to a sinus condition she suffered during this period; Never the less the sound was right for the times. There are three bonus cuts that complete the "Look At Us" reissue. Included is an unreleased cover of the Ray Charles chestnut "Crying Time," which should excite those Sonny and Cher fans that are always looking for the stone uncovered. Also the listener will discover the inclusion of the lilting ballad, "Don't Talk to Strangers," borrowed from the creative Sonny Bono 1967 soundtrack release "Good Times." It is a Cher solo, with signature Sonny Bono time changes. It features a teary eyed, airy Bono harmony refrain. The last of the three bonus cuts is the good time duet, "It's the Little Things," that is prototype Sonny and Cher dialogue that finds the two crooning Wall of sound teenage cliches of love to one another. Wailing and vowing once again that there s no way they could live without the other. "Things" is a very sweet duet released from the movie as a single and proved to be one of the duo's final hits in 1967. Sonny was the mover and shaker, but Cher was always the voice of Sonny & Cher, powerful, playful and moody. Sonny relied on Cher to be the star, and continued to through the history of their 10 years together.
"Look At Us" sold briskly and was # 2 on the sales charts for a long 8 weeks in the later part of 1965. By this time the duo was a part of American everyday life and they enjoyed success in packed concert halls, on television variety shows, teen shows and fashion magazines such as Vogue. They were inarguably the couple of their generation. They were guests on Ed Sullivan, Hollywood Palace, Carol Burnett, The Smothers Brothers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and the list goes on. They were true pop stars of the first magnitude. Neither of the Bonos though controversial looking was into anything too esoteric, including addictive or experimental behaviors, making them acceptable to parents and eventually less hip to their teenybopper following. Sonny and Cher was a breath of fresh air on the rock and roll scene, and 1965 defined them to the public.
"The Wondrous World of Sonny and Cher" 1966
By winter '65 , the recording world had experienced a tidal wave of Sonny and Cher hits. At one time in the fall of that year, the visual folk-rock team had 5 Billboard-charted records at the same time. "Baby, Don't Go" was re-released, as was "Just You." Both were faring well on the music charts, here in the states and abroad. Sonny and Cher were an international sensation. "The Letter" was re-released on Vault records and failed again, proving the non -commercial potential of that record done as Caesar and Cleo a long year previous. "Look at Us" was one of the most successful LPs of 1965. Their other single hits included two tracks that made their delayed LP debut on their second album, "The Wondrous World of Sonny and Cher." It is a really satisfying to see "The Wondrous World of Sonny and Cher" back in print. Many of the cuts on this LP have not been released anew for over thirty years. The other studio LPs "Look At Us," and "In Case You're In Love," were reissued as packages on vinyl in the seventies, negating the appealing Peter Paul and Mary cover track "500 Miles" and replacing it with "Baby Don't Go," the couple's only Reprise hit. "Wondrous World," along with the Reprise LP "Baby Don't Go," by Sonny and Cher and friends (Bill Medley, Lettermen and Blendells), is one of the Bonos' most sought after collectibles. Considering the celebrated couple's fame, it's amazing it's taken so long for this vintage record to resurface.
"The Wondrous World of Sonny and Cher," the follow-up to "Look at Us," included "But You're Mine," a Sonny and Cher against an oppressive society tune, featuring the Lovin' Spoonful as backup. Although a weak shadow of The Fortunes' "You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine," the song charted in the top twenty anyway. This was due to the enormous boost achieved from "I Got You Babe," and the publicity that the image of Sonny and Cher generated in the autumn following the summer of '65. The Sonny top ten-protest vehicle, "Laugh At Me," was also included on this album. We are also treated to Sonny's groovy non-LP cut and protest follow up to "Laugh at Me," "The Revolution Kind," as a bonus track. "Wondrous World," was supported by hits that had charted four months prior to its release in '65 .The mass popularity Sonny and Cher carried in '65 was responsible for the watershed of hit material in surplus... These certified old hits gave the LP a somewhat dated quality when it was released. Ironically, I believe the hits put a damper on the LP's impact on its release. Many fans already had these singles. To make things more complicated; the cover art of "Wondrous World" was less mysteriously beautiful than the Sherwood Forest medieval charm of "Look At Us." We find the Bonos are perched uncomfortably, posed in striped teenybopper mod outfits in rather harsh light. The New York Post Magazine carried an article with related session pictures that year that had writer later famed, Peter Bogadanovich (director of the Cher film "Mask" in 1985) following the couple around, chronicling their moves and concert adventures. The era found the duo in massive shock, dealing with their high profile notoriety. The busy schedule of appearances prevented the talented Bono from writing much new material for the follow up to "Look At Us." The album lacked a new musical direction, though for many devoted fans this was not an issue. It would however prove to be an issue to the less devoted. It appeared that Sonny and Cher were not breaking new ground. This was indicated by "Wondrous World"'s weaker sales. It peaked at # 34 that year, though it had 3 top ten singles. These included a new signature version of "What Now, My Love," a Sigman- Becaud and Delanoe song, finding Sonny and Cher in top vocal form. The arrangement was moving; an orchestral bell intro, vibrating tambourines and plaintive, emotional harmonies by the Bonos lend the song the dramatic pathos it deserves. "What Now" was so well produced that Sonny recalled a compliment from Elvis himself many years later, when the two met one evening in Las Vegas. Even so, "What Now, My Love" placed at a moderate #14 on the charts. It showed some cooling on the part of the Sonny and Cher public. The single made its debut at the very end of 1965. The rest of the LP followed the previous formula with reputable oldie covers. In fact eight of the songs are rock and roll oldie covers, and though they are remarkably high quality, they are still cover songs. The tracks are all enjoyable, and they include a wistful version of "Turn Around," a folk-rock version of The Kinks' Ray Davies tune, "Set me Free," and Sonny's old friend Sam Cooke's soulful chestnut "Bring it On Home to Me." The Cher vocals on the Sonny and Cher LPs were slightly sped up in the mix. Reportedly Sonny was after a lighter, more commercial sound and had learned this trick from mentor, Phil Spector. Apparently Cher's low contralto with the gypsy shadings was a trifle morose in tone for some of those pop arrangements. Compared to her Imperial recordings, there is a distinct change in the color of Cher's recorded sound. He didn't seem to play with the speed on her solo recordings.
There is argument among fans over which recordings received the most studio attention. The Bono originals received the most lavish care. It s always harder to recreate art than to spin gold from inspiration. Of the three bonus cuts here, "Have I Stayed Too Long" recorded five months after the release of "Wondrous World," is far more original and mature in quality than much of that LP. Though no big charter, the song's vocals are stronger and more assertive than earlier work and display the confidence that Cher was building as a singer. Though the vocals soared, the song's message was somewhat ambiguous. It seemed to be a statement about the sorrow in relationships that take a turn for the worse, comparing the experience to a party that disintegrates before its finale.
The final bonus cut is "Hello," an informal chat to allow fans to connect with the flower power couple, presenting gregarious leader Sonny coaxing Cher to be more confident and to enjoy the opportunity of talking to their fans via flip side of "But You re Mine." It's a cute piece of nostalgia, but is hardly worth a thousand plays.
At this time Sonny penned and produced the greatest Cher single of her career over at Imperial. "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," was the last song recorded for "The Sonny Side of Cher," her second solo effort on Imperial. "Bang Bang" is a dark gypsy campfire tune about a woman shot down at the altar. It was one in a series of Bono melodramatic songs reflecting woman as victim to social and romantic tragedies. Three other examples of this are "You Better Sit Down Kids," "Where Do You Go," and "Mama, When My Dollies Have Babies." Ahmet Ertegun was quoted as saying, "Bang, Bang was the best song written since World War Two," but this is debatable after his questionable adulation for "It's Gonna Rain." Regardless, Harold Battiste's arrangement, particularly the spectacular violin intro and Cher's darkly resonant reading made it her greatest hit on the Imperial label, and paved the way for the Snuff Garrett-produced Cher gypsy genre-related songs of the seventies, including her signature tune "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves." To Sonny's credit, none of those songs surpassed "Bang Bang" artistically. The song has been recorded by many, including the title cut on a Sinatra 80's saloon album. None have matched the first version in mood. Not even a hard rock version Cher herself recorded on Geffen in 1987 can touch the mood of the original.
"Wondrous World" is still a very lively group of songs by folk-rock's most enduring and celebrated team. The personal thank you on the back cover is repeated in "Hello," and was a typical intimate nicety by the Bonos to let their fans know that they owed their success to them. Sonny and Cher relied on the personal repoirt with their fans, and made attempts to cement that with their various communications. The lack of commercial sales must have worried the already mature Bono, and his attempts to branch out into television and movies were already in formation during 1966. The rest of the decade appeared to be a crapshoot.
"In Case You're In Love" 1967
By the time Sonny and Cher released their 3rd Atco LP, "In Case You're In Love," the tides of pop music were turning. The Sonny and Cher image on this LP cover shows a more manicured and sophisticated mod-outfitted duo, relaxed in a lovely lake setting. The cover finds them at their most attractive. The two appear more acceptably stylish, cheerful and far from the earthy bobcat vest image of '65. By 1967 the Bonos had peaked career wise. "The Beat Goes On," a single written and recorded much earlier, was the anthem that caused the LP to be a success commercially. The formula that had put them on top was still alive, though threatened. Their visual appearance was still fashionable but found the couple more to the right by this time. Ironically, their previous counter-culture image had taken on a life of its own, and many rock groups picked up the flower-power image and tailored it to suit the next phase in the evolution of rock. Groups like The Jefferson Airplane and The Doors, hardened it and paired it with music of a cerebral, rebellious cutting edge quality. Folk-rock was passe. Sonny and Cher were benign pop mainstream- acceptable by 1967. Even so, "In Case You're In Love" rivals "Look At Us" in its musicality. The big hit on the LP, "The Beat Goes On," became a Carnaby Street-type anthem, saluting the changing styles of pop culture, and the inevitable movement of style morphing into tomorrow's pop culture shapes. The half-spoken pop beat rhythm to the brain is catchy and building and it took them to #6 on the charts. Meanwhile, solo-wise, Cher was hitting with Sonny's prophetic "You Better Sit Down Kids," a paean to middle-class family disintegration through divorce. This tune went to #8 and is considered to be one of Bono's most original, especially the jazz improvisational finale as well as the radical tempo changes elicited in the song. This period really was the Bonos' last confident roll of the 60's, evidenced in these great songs. "The Beat Goes On" became an American expression, as well as the title of an album by Vanilla Fudge tracing the history of rock and roll. It is also the title of the late Sonny Bono's 1991 autobiography.
"In Case You're In Love" featured the Pan European-inspired "Little Man," an Armenian-Italian rhapsody that fared better on the European shores than in America. Sonny, no slacker, was responsible for courting the market in Europe, and the duo put out several foreign-tongued originals during this period, as well as French and Italian versions of their hits. Sonny penned the tune "Little Man" on a European tour, and released it there first. "In Case You're In Love" also included Sonny's best solo singing yet, a poignant cover of folk rock writer Bob Lind's "Cheryl's Goin' Home." It is surprisingly poetic in feel. "In Case You're In Love" contains more than a few Sonny originals, including another East European folk-type song called "Love Don't Come." Ironically, the terrific single released around this period, "Have I Stayed Too Long," did not find its way to the album. It can be heard on Sundazed's "Wondrous World of Sonny and Cher" reissue in this series. Despite weak sales, "Have I Stayed Too Long?" is one of their most mature emotive songs about personal distaste for shallow relationships without love. Another mild hit, finding its way to this compilation that made none of the Atco LPs (except for two greatest hits compilations) is the bouyant , roller rink rhapsody, "A Beautiful Story." "In Case You're In Love" is without a doubt a superior LP in freshness to "Wondrous World," though it fared even less well on the pop charts at # 45. However , "In Case You're in Love" spent many weeks on the charts in 1967, largely on the strength of "The Beat Goes On." Indeed, the times, they were a-changin'.
Harold Battiste, New Orleans pianist, conductor and arranger, deserves great credit for his creative musicianship on many of the Sonny and Cher and Cher solo efforts, of the 60's. He was devoted and respectful to Sonny, and his genius inspired and shaped Sonny's compositions. His arrangements on "I Got you Babe" and "Bang Bang" are said to have supplied the unusual hooks that made those songs so memorable. He empathized with the young Cher, as Sonny insisted she sing a song as many as thirty or more times until she got it. She would look at Harold from the sound booth with desperation. Sonny believed exhaustion helped an artist to surrender, creating a more honest recording.
Successive singles following "In Case You're In Love" included a thinly disguised parody of Dylan's "Rainy Day Women 12 by 35." Sonny released the Salvation Army saga, "Plastic Man," a bonus cut on this reissue, which premiered on The Smothers Brothers' Comedy hour in '67. The song was a critique on the trippers and shakers of the day, people to whom Sonny did not relate. It mildly charted, but it was a confusing raucous song. "Plastic Man" was rather a top forty odd ball with whining elongated Bono harmonies that encouraged visual images of distortion, more hallucinatory than calming.. It was a really strange record for a single release. It was the beginning of a Sonny and Cher anti-drug stance that would add to their passe image.
I should mention that Sonny composed and released a solo LP at this time called "Inner Views," but the project revealed his true stature as a poetic visionary. Someone in the far reaches of Lower Slobbovia probably liked it. Bob Dylan no doubt slept easily that year.
"Plastic Man" was followed by some rather stylistically diverse singles, including an up-tempo love song called "It's the Little Things" from "Good Times," one of the two movies that financially and creatively drained Sonny Bono. The Bonos' last chart record, appearing on a compilation here for the very first time, was their final Atco chart recording, "Good Combination," a cool-jerk horn-blasting song that never made # 50. The pair was watered down doing movies and facing a musical identity crisis. Sonny wrote some good score work on "Good Times," a '67 release, but not many people saw the movie or heard the score. It was almost shipped directly to the cutout bins. "Chastity," a 1969 soundtrack of pseudo-Italian movie fodder, was less inspired by than mimicking a genre. Cher's vocal, "Band of Thieves," completely out of sync with the rest of the melodramatic score, foreshadowed a really good song she did two years later, though "Band of Thieves" was no "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves." Sonny and Cher were recording unworthy, unfocused material with less than stellar arrangements. "Circus," a follow up to the "Plastic Man" theme of anti-drug pronouncement had Sonny and Cher conservatively suggesting American youth was in need of traditional beliefs. The churchly ending suggests a lack of religious commitment was adding to the problem of drug abuse. "Circus" was an oddball rhythmic tune but made no waves in the later sixties era of personal freedom and experimentation. It was a resounding flop and cemented the fact that Sonny was writing less creatively and was out of step with the times. Apparently disgusted with financial woes from his personal investment in the film "Chastity," his creativity suffered as a result.
"In Case You're in Love" was a landmark LP in that it catches Sonny and Cher at their later 60's best. Some fresh material and intelligent arrangements make this LP as buoyant and creative today as it was 31 years ago when it was first released. "Drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain la di da di di..."
Meanwhile, in 1968 Cher was given her walking papers at Imperial and was hustled down to Alabama to record a solo Muscle Shoals album for Atco, "3614 Jackson Highway," with Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin. Sonny was asked not to produce, so that the powers at Atco could reshape Cher's career. The LP is one of her most artistic outings, and was given critical nods but was less than ground breaking. Cher was not assertive enough to put her stamp on the material, and too many cuts were cover songs done as well or better by the original artists. The lack of original material limited Cher's artistic expression. The best cuts were the more obscure country-influenced tunes. A standout was the song twice released as a single, "Just Enough to Keep me Hangin' On," and a second tune, "Please Don't Tell Me." Covers included three songs by Dylan, ("Lay Lady Lay," "I threw it all away" and "Tonight I'll be staying here with you.") Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman" as well as a fine vocal on the late Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay." It is easy to see in retrospect how this chapter of the Sonny and Cher story hit low ebb. The days with Atco ended on a confused disturbing career note. The beat went on and circumstances changed, leaving the talented Bonos to start up the ladder of dues paying all over again, and playing by different rules to the audience of the 70's.
Sonny and Cher's musical legacy of the 60's lives on in these landmark foundation recordings. Cher continues to record today, and has broken new ground artistically with each decade. She has reached great heights in a movie career as well, receiving the Oscar for 'Moon-Struck' in 1988.Cher is one of the world's premier celebrities.
Sonny made a late life impact as a politician, beloved in his mayor position in Palm Springs followed by a congressional seat. Their beat started with these 60's heartfelt records. They were accomplished as the decades most famous singing couple, which miraculously continued into the 70's, via their hit variety series, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
Following the sad demise of Congressman Sonny Bono in a ski accident January 1998, I personally feel indebted to the folks at Sundazed for caring enough to see that we can hear the original LPs in their original context. The project was contracted prior to Bono's death, and fortunately has fallen into caring hands. These reissues will extend the Sonny & Cher legacy, because the creative material here reflects artistic sincerity in composition and performance, standing the test of time.
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