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Sonny & Cher

 
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Sonny and Cher

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Pop duo

Sonny and Cher, the pop-rock hippie duo of the late 1960s and early 1970s, created a positive, non-threatening image of the American counterculture of their time. Sonny Bono in his distinctive bobcat vest, together with the tall, lean, and dark-haired Cher played the role of the misplaced hippie couple to the hilt—and to the delight of both teens and parents of that era. In 1971 Sonny and Cher, who were married in real life, hosted their own television show, the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which was an uncontested hit until their marriage broke up in 1974. At that point the beloved couple separated, and each went on to bigger and greater stardom—an award-winning career in movies for Cher, and a budding career in national politics for Bono until his untimely death in 1998.

Salvatore "Sonny" Bono was born on February 16, 1935 in Detroit, Michigan to Jean and Santo Bono. Bono’s mother was an American-born Italian who married at age 14; Bono’s father, an immigrant, was born in Montela-bre, Sicily. Bono was the youngest of three children, and the only boy. Bono was still in grade school when the family moved to Hawthorne, California, outside of Los Angeles, where Santo Bono found work as a truck driver. Jean Bono ran a beauty shop in the family home.

Never an exceptional student, Bono decided early in life to become an entertainer. He was fond of writing skits, cracking jokes, and pantomime. Undaunted by the reality of his grinding, granular, nasal voice, Bono loved music in particular and hoped to sing professionally. At Los Angeles’s Inglewood High School he teamed up with a fellow student, a piano player, to entertain after high school football games. After graduation in 1952 however, he worked as a bagger in a grocery store, and then drove a tug in an aircraft plant, all the while writing songs in his spare time. In 1955 he recorded his first song, an abysmal flop, and continued working at odd jobs pouring cement and delivering meat. Bono married a waitress named Donna Rankin in February of 1954, with whom he fathered a child before the marriage fell into shambles and ended in divorce.

Rose to Fame
When Crystal Records offered one of his songs to Frankie Lane, Bono’s rise to fame had begun. To his surprise, Crystal was impressed and asked for more songs. Soon Bono moved on to Specialty Records, and intime he veered into the production arena. When his job at Specialty was eliminated due to cutbacks, he started his own record label, Gold Records. In that venture Bono’s clients were few; he spent much of his time recording his own songs under pseudonyms. Bono

closed the door on Gold Records for the last time when he moved into a public relations job with Record Merchandising, promoting up-and-coming artists including Gene Pitney and Chubby Checker. Slowly he learned his way through the maze of the Southern California record business of the 1960s. Around that time Bono met Cher Sarkisian LaPiere, an underage runaway.

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946 in El Centro, California. Her early life was very unstable. When Cher was still an infant her mother, who is most commonly known as Georgia Holt, placed the baby in the custody of a nunnery for approximately one year.

Even after the child returned home, Holt and John Sarkisian, Cher’s father, carried on a tempestuous love-hate relationship during much of Cher’s early life. The couple divorced and remarried twice, and ventured a third romance before the relationship ended permanently.

Cher’s mother, a part-time model and waitress, then married John Southall. The couple had a daughter together in 1951, but the marriage ended in divorce, as well. Holt and her two daughters lived in dismal poverty until 1961 when Holt married once more, to Gilbert LaPiere. LaPiere, a man of means, adopted the two girls and gave them a comfortable home, but by that time Cher was already rebellious. A star-struck teen-ager, she dropped out of school at age 16.

Sonny and Cher, the Duo
Cher and Bono met in 1963. Bono, some years older than Cher and possessed of certain show business savvy, impressed the naive teenager. Bono helped her to secure work as a backup singer for the Ronettes and other artists, and eventually conceived of the notion that the two of them should form a duo. The couple originally billed themselves as Caesar and Cleo, but that image failed, as did their first record. Eventually they came up with the Sonny and Cher act, which evoked a cute hippie persona. The couple married legally in 1964, an event which undoubtedly cemented their image as Sonny and Cher.

Soon the couple was a hit. Their first number one record, "I Got You Babe," written by Bono, was released in 1965. Sonny and Cher lasted through six albums, two movies, and a musical variety television show, before they divorced, at which point the act went by the wayside along with the marriage. The couple had one child, a daughter named Chastity, who was born on March 4, 1969. Chastity Bono continued to live her mother, but maintained a very close relationship with her father as well.

Solo Careers
In 1982 Bono opened his Bono Restaurant in West Hollywood, California. Just prior to the opening, on December 31, 1981, he married Susie Coelho, an aspiring actress. Bono’s long work schedule at his new restaurant, however, put stress on the new marriage and the couple separated permanently in June of 1984. In 1986 Bono opened a second restaurant in Palm Springs, California. A short time later he married for the fourth and final time, to Mary Whitaker. The couple had two children, Chesare and Chianna.

As a Palm Springs entrepreneur, Bono became involved in civic issues. In 1988 he was elected the mayor of Palm Springs, in a landslide election—the largest margin in the history of that city. In 1994 Bono ran successfully for a seat to the 104th Congress, as a representative from the 44th Congressional District. He was re-elected in 1996, but he died tragically in a skiing accident on January 5, 1998. Bono was hailed as a gifted public official and was remembered for his warmth and human compassion, as well as for his undying sense of humor. After his death, Bono’s widow ran successfully for the congressional seat held by her late husband.

After the breakup of Sonny and Cher, Cher continued recording, and in time she established herself as a serious movie star as well. She earned an Academy Award nomination for her first film, Silkwood, in 1984, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Moonstruck in 1987. She tied for the best actress award at Cannes in 1985, and she won three Golden Globe Awards. In 1996 Cher directed an trilogy for the Home Box Office (HBO) on cable television. The movie starred award winning actresses Demi Moore, Sissy Spacek, and Anne Heche, with Cher herself in a supporting role. Cher continued to devote her career to films. In 1998 she went on location to Italy to film a motion picture with Franco Zeffirelli.

After Cher’s divorce from Bono, the tall and willowy singer/actress became a tabloid favorite. Her personal life often overshadowed her professional accomplishments. In June of 1975 she married singer Gregg Allman. The couple had one son, Elijah Blue Allman, a guitar player and singer. The Allman marriage faltered almost immediately as Greg Allman displayed symptoms of serious drug addiction. Although his wife committed herself to helping him, the challenge was more than she could shoulder, and the marriage did not survive. She was then associated with a virtually unending stream of beaus. Cher’s attraction for hand-someyoung Hollywood males—Val Kilmer, Tom Cruise, and Rob Caminetti—continued through the years, even as she matured into her fifties. As a result her personal moves became big business for the paparazzi photographers who followed her.

For all her talent, Cher was always renowned for her striking physical appearance. Heryouthful appearance and slim silhouette solicited persistent speculation over rumored cosmetic surgeries. Cher’s lavish lifestyle was equally as attention grabbing as her physical image and her romantic trysts. In 1988 she bought a $7 million home in Los Angeles, and in 1990 she paid $1.6 million for a co-op apartment in New York. She bought an adobe retreat in Aspen, Colorado in 1991, and near the end of 1996 she sold her Miami, Florida beach home when she realized that a tour boat was bringing gawkers by her house.

Image aside, she was known personally as an exceptionally industrious woman, a hard worker, and family-oriented. In 1998 Cher was asked to give the eulogy at Sonny Bono’s funeral. She later taped Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers, a tribute to Bono, which aired on CBS on May 20, 1998.

Selected discography
"I Got You Babe," Atco, 1965.
"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), Ateo, 1966.
The Wondrous World of Sonny and Cher, 1966.
"The Beat Goes On," Atco, 1967.
The Best of Sonny and Chcr, 1967.

Sources
Books
Bono, Sonny, The Beat Goes On, Pocket Books, New York, 1991.
Quirk, Lawrence J., Totally Uninhibited: The Life and Wild Times of Cher, William Morrow and Company Inc., New York, 1991.

Periodicals
People, May 25, 1998.

Online
http://northcountrynotes.com/remembrance/bono, October 7, 1998.
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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:

Sonny & Cher

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  • Genres: Rock

Biography

Sonny & Cher proved one of the magical musical combinations of the mid-'60s and one of the better rock-influenced MOR acts of the early '70s, their wisecracking repartee providing counterpoint to a series of adoring hit duets. Salvatore "Sonny" Bono (born February 16, 1935) started out at Los Angeles-based Specialty Records as a songwriter in the late '50s, responsible for "Koko Joe" by Don & Dewey and "She Said Yeah" for Larry Williams, which was later covered by the Rolling Stones and the Righteous Brothers. Bono became a protégé of Phil Spector, managing to write a handful of successful songs, most notably "Needles and Pins" in collaboration with his protégé Jack Nitzsche, which became a success for Jackie DeShannon and a huge international hit for the Searchers. In 1964, while working sessions with Phil Spector, he met an 18-year-old would-be singer named Cherilyn Lapierre (born May 20, 1946), and the two were later married. They formed a professional duet, initially as Caesar & Cleo for Vault Records and later Reprise, but it was only after they were signed to Atlantic Records as Sonny & Cher that success came their way. The couple embarked on parallel careers, with Cher later signed to Liberty/Imperial Records as a solo act.

They were a strange duet in the sense that neither had a great voice and, indeed, their voices were so similar that Atlantic's president Ahmet Ertegun was convinced that Sonny had come close to breaking a contract by turning up singing with her on her solo hit "All I Really Want to Do" and her other Imperial hits. The latter song, however, also demonstrated their ability to spot a hit, as well as good material for themselves: they'd heard the Byrds performing the Dylan song at a club in Los Angeles and got Cher's recording out before the Byrds' own was in stores, beating the folk-rock group at its own game of popularizing Dylan songs. She subsequently hit with "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" while Sonny charted with "Laugh at Me" on Atco, but their biggest success was as a duet on Atco, with "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On."

For a time, from 1965 until 1967, they were rock & roll's hottest couple, so much so that in some conservative communities, they were considered almost morally subversive; parents locked up their kids when Sonny & Cher were passing through for a concert appearance. They were popular enough, and sufficiently well-known that the Rolling Stones impersonated them on the British television music showcase Ready Steady Go, miming to "I Got You Babe" with Brian Jones subbing for Sonny.

And then nothing. The hits stopped coming, and the couple made some daringly creative but unsuccessful commercial missteps, even a movie (Good Times, directed by William Friedkin in his debut) that was, like the Monkees' Head, too far ahead of its time for critics and all but the most advanced fans to appreciate. A further film effort, Chastity, a name shared by their daughter, also bombed, and the sudden confrontation of a $200,000 income tax debt forced the couple to continue working. Further, they were unable to record because of a dispute with Atlantic over Sonny's objections to the way that Cher's solo career was being handled.

They were playing supper clubs and Las Vegas nightclubs, opening for people like Pat Boone, when Johnny Musso, a friend of the couple's, was jumping from an executive position at Atlantic to run Decca Records' Kapp label subsidiary, and brought the duo with him. At around the same time, their stage act -- which had evolved into a kind of "with it" domestic comedy routine nearly as prominent as the music, with the tall, wry-witted Cher cutting up on the seemingly dim-witted Sonny -- was spotted by Fred Silverman, who was then the head of programming for CBS. They ended up with a summer replacement try-out show that did so well that Sonny & Cher were given a regular spot in the CBS lineup in January 1972 with a comedy-variety series.

The couple's recording career was initially revived by a live album cut in one night at Las Vegas, featuring new versions of their early hits as well as parts of their then-current repertory; the album went gold. The first couple of singles by Cher and Sonny & Cher failed, but then producer Snuff Garrett, who had been at Liberty when Cher was there but had never worked with her, was brought in, and the result was "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves," a career-reviving number one hit. After that, "The Way of Love," "All I Ever Need Is You" (which became the theme for their TV show), "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done," "Half Breed," and "Dark Lady" kept either Cher or the couple in the Top Ten at various times through 1974. By then, however, their marriage had fallen apart, and with it, the success of their TV show.

By then, it didn't matter. They were pop culture icons, though Bono became the butt of many jokes when Cher eclipsed him with her acting career in movies like Silkwood and Mask. Bono was in the restaurant business when his outrage at the bureaucracy of the government in Palm Springs, California, caused him to declare his candidacy for mayor; he won the election, and was subsequently elected to Congress during the 1994 Republican sweep of the House of Representatives. He continued to represent his ex-wife's business interests, even as his subsequent remarriage (the name Sonny & Cher is trademarked), and was beginning to make a mark as a conservative Republican member of the California House delegation when he died in a skiing accident in 1998. Bono's second wife, Mary, succeeded him to the same House seat in a special election, and in the general election in 1998. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Sonny & Cher

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Sonny & Cher

Sonny & Cher in 1973.
Background information
Origin United States
Genres Pop, pop rock, folk
Years active 1964–1977
Labels Vault (1964)
Reprise (1964-65)
Atco/Atlantic (1965–1967)
MCA/Kapp (1971–1974)
Associated acts Cher (solo career)
Past members
Sonny Bono
Cher

Sonny & Cher were an American pop music duo, actors, singers and entertainers made up of husband-and-wife team Sonny and Cher Bono in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector.

The pair first achieved fame with two hit songs in 1965, "Baby Don't Go" and "I Got You Babe". Signing with Atco/Atlantic Records, they released three studio albums in the late 1960s, as well as the soundtrack recording for an unsuccessful movie, Good Times. In 1972, after four years of silence, the couple returned to the studio and released two other albums under the MCA/Kapp Records label.

In the 1970s, they also positioned themselves as media personalities with two top ten TV shows in the US, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and The Sonny & Cher Show. The couple's career as a duo ended in 1975 following their divorce. In the decade they spent together, Sonny and Cher sold 80 million records worldwide.[citation needed] Performing under her first name, Cher went on to a highly successful career as a solo singer and actress, while Sonny Bono was eventually elected to Congress as a U.S. Representative from California. The duo were inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998, right after Sonny's death.

Contents

Career

1962–1964: The origin

Cherilyn Sarkisian first met Salvatore Bono in a Los Angeles coffee shop in November 1962,[1] when she was sixteen.[2] The older Bono (11 years her senior)[3] was working for record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood.[4] The two became fast friends, eventual lovers, and later married. Through Bono, Cher started as a session singer, and sang backup on several of Spector’s classic recordings, including "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers and Darlene Love's "A Fine, Fine Boy". In the composition by Darlene Love, the listener can clearly hear Cher and Sonny close to the mic (along with Love, who recorded her own backing vocals).[4] After watching an early tape of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez singing "Blowing in the Wind", it appears that Phil Spector used Sonny and Cher as a comic re-creation of them.[citation needed]

1965–1966: Career development

Sonny & Cher during a rehearsal break at ABC Television’s Wembley studios on 26 May 1966.

With Bono continuing to write, arrange and produce the songs, the couple's first incarnation was as the duo "Caesar and Cleo".[1][5][6] They received little attention, despite releasing some singles in 1964: "The Letter", with Vault Records, and "The Letter", "Do You Wanna Dance" and "Love Is Strange", with Reprise Records.[7]

In September 1964, they released "Baby Don't Go"[6] under the name of Sonny & Cher, which became their first regional hit. The song was later included on the 1965 Reprise compilation Baby Don't Go - Sonny & Cher and Friends, which also included songs from artists such as Bill Medley, The Lettermen and The Blendells.

The duo released their first album Look at Us in the summer of 1965.[8] The album contained the smash hit and eventual number-one single "I Got You Babe".[9] Look at Us sold briskly, peaking at number two on the Billboard chart for eight weeks in the later part of 1965.[6]

The couple soon appeared on many of the top television shows of the era including The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, Where The Action Is, Hollywood A Go-Go, Hollywood Palace, Hullabaloo, Beat Club, Shindig!, Ready Steady Go! and Top of the Pops.[8] They also appeared as themselves in the film Wild on the Beach, singing "It's Gonna Rain". Bono in their first album displayed also his political interest long before running for Congress, in the lyrics of "The Revolution Kind" song.

As the followup to the success of Look at Us, they released their second studio album in April 1966, The Wondrous World of Sonny & Cher, which peaked at number 34. The couple also traveled and performed around the world, and tickets were some of the hottest at the time. Fans lined up to buy Sonny and Cher tickets for their first tour, the Wondrous World Tour.[10] The two became a quick sensation, dressed in animal skins with Bono wearing knee high caveman boots and Cher going barefoot.

During 1965, five of their songs were in US Billboard Top 20, a record passed only by Elvis Presley and behind famous artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and others. Periodic solo releases by Cher continued during this period, including major successes with "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", and Burt Bacharach & Hal David's theme from "Alfie" (as heard in the motion picture Alfie, as well as a single release), both in 1966. They did become briefly controversial in Los Angeles for siding with the young people being harassed on the Sunset Strip; as a result, they were removed from their promised position of honor in the Tournament of Roses Parade in January 1967.[11]

1967–1970: Career woes

In 1967 Sonny and Cher released their third album, In Case You're In Love. It peaked at number 46 in the U.S. charts. It contained two hit singles, both written by Bono, "The Beat Goes On" (#6 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Little Man" (#21 on the Billboard Hot 100), that peaked at the number one in five European countries.

In an attempt to capitalize on the duo’s initial success, Bono speedily arranged a film project for the duo to star in. But the 1967 feature, Good Times, was a major bomb, despite the efforts of fledgling director William Friedkin and co-star George Sanders.[12] After Good Times flopped in 1968, Columbia Pictures immediately sold rights to their intended follow-up film Speedway to MGM.[13] The couple were replaced by Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra.

Sonny and Cher's career had stalled by 1968 as album sales quickly dried up. Their gentle, easy-listening pop sound and drug-free life[citation needed] had become unpopular in an era increasingly consumed with the psychedelic rock of the evolving landscape of American pop culture during the late 1960s.

Bono decided to forge ahead, carving a new career for the duo in Las Vegas resorts, where they sharpened their public persona with Cher as the wise-cracking singer, and Bono as the good-natured recipient of her insults. In reality, Bono controlled every aspect of their act, from the musical arrangements to the joke-writing. While success was slow to come, their luck improved when network TV talent scouts attended a show, noting their potential appeal for a variety series.

Sonny and Cher also welcomed their first child, a girl, Chastity Sun Bono, born on March 4, 1969. Chaz underwent a sex change operation in 2009. His request for changes of name to Chaz Bono and gender to male was granted by a judge in 2010. [14][15]

1971–1977: TV success and divorce

Performing live in 1971.

In 1971 Sonny and Cher starred in their first television special, The Nitty Gritty Hour.[16] A mixture of slapstick comedy, skits and live music, the appearance was a critical success, which led to numerous guest spots on other television shows.[16] They also appeared in The New Scooby-Doo Movies as guest stars.

Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman while guest-hosting The Merv Griffin Show, and Silverman offered the duo their own variety show.[17] The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series.[17] The show returned to prime time later that year and was an immediate hit, quickly reaching the Top 10.[17] The show received 15 Emmy Award nominations during its run, winning one for direction,[18] throughout its initial four seasons on CBS. The duo also revived their recording career, releasing the album All I Ever Need Is You, and charting two more top ten hits: "All I Ever Need Is You", and "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done" in 1972.[19]

Sonny and Cher's dialogues were patterned after the successful nightclub routines of Louis Prima and Keely Smith: the happy-go-lucky husband squelched by a tart remark from the unamused wife. The show featured a stock company of zany comedians, including Freeman King, Ted Ziegler, and Murray Langston (later The Unknown Comic on The Gong Show). One sketch satirizing CBS's detective show Cannon and its portly star William Conrad was so successful that Sonny and Cher staged several follow-ups, with Tony Curtis as "Detective Fat." Everybody in these sketches wore wide-waisted "fat suits" (similar to hoop skirts), so Detective Fat and his clients and his suspects would spend most of the time bumping each other and bouncing across the crowded room.

By the third season of the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, the marriage of Sonny and Cher was falling apart; the duo separated later that year.[17] The show imploded, while still in the top 10 of the ratings.[20] What followed was a nasty, very public divorce (finalized on June 27, 1975[21]). Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance By an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in 1974.[22]

Scene from an Egyptian soap opera skit on The Sonny and Cher Show, 1977.

Bono launched his own show, The Sonny Comedy Revue, in the fall of 1974,[23][24] retaining the "Sonny and Cher" troupe of comedians and writers. Cher also announced plans to star in a new variety series of her own. Critics, surprisingly, predicted that Bono would be the big winner with a solo comedy vehicle, and didn't hold much hope for Cher's more musical showcase. After only six weeks, however, Bono's show was abruptly canceled.[17]

The Cher show debuted as an elaborate, all-star television special on February 16, 1975 featuring Flip Wilson, Bette Midler and special guest Elton John.[17] Cloris Leachman and Jack Albertson both won Emmy Awards for their appearances as guest-stars a few weeks later,[17] and the series received four additional Emmy nominations that year. The first season ranked in the Top 25 of the year-end ratings.

As a result of the divorce, Sonny and Cher went their separate ways until Cher attended the opening of one of Bono's restaurants in something of a reconciliation. The Sonny & Cher Show returned in 1976, even though they were no longer married (the duo "reunited" with a humorous handshake). After struggling with low ratings through 1977, Sonny and Cher finally parted ways for good. In 1976, Mego Toys also released a line of toys and dolls, in the likeness of Sonny & Cher.[25] The release of these fashion dolls coincided with the popularity of The Sonny & Cher Show.[26]

1978–1999: After Sonny and Cher

Bono went on to an acting career and later entered politics, eventually becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Cher continued a successful career. Although Cher claimed to have been beaten by Sonny on several accounts, she said that she still loved him.

The couple made two surprise impromptu reunion performances: the first on The Mike Douglas Show in the spring of 1979, singing a medley of "United We Stand" and "Without You",[27] and the second on November 13, 1987[28][29] on Late Night with David Letterman where they performed their hit song "I Got You Babe". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW-Rs5kLzJY

In early 1999, "And the Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story", directed by David Burton Morris and starring Jay Underwood and Renee Faia, was broadcast on ABC. The TV movie was based on the autobiography of Bono, and focuses the relationship between the couple during the early 60's to their divorce in the late 70's. This movie was also nominated for two Emmy Awards.[30]

Bono's death, and music copyright

Sonny and Cher's star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On January 5, 1998, Bono died of injuries from hitting a tree while skiing at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe. He was 62 years old.[31][32] Bono's death came just days after Michael Kennedy had died in a similar accident. Bono's widow, Mary, was selected to fill the remainder Congressional term. She has since been re-elected in her own right. She continues to champion many of her late husband's causes, including the ongoing fight as how to best save the Salton Sea.

The funeral, unbeknownst to Cher, was broadcast live on CNN. She gave a tearful eulogy, after which the attendees sang the song "The Beat Goes On". In front of millions, Cher tearfully and effusively praised Bono, calling him "the most unforgettable character I've ever met".[33] His final resting place is Desert Memorial Park in nearby Cathedral City, California, the same cemetery in which Frank Sinatra was laid to rest later that same year. The epitaph on Bono's headstone reads: "And The Beat Goes On".[34]

In 1998, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. Cher appeared at the event with Mary Bono, who accepted the award on behalf of her late husband. Cher paid tribute to Bono in the CBS special Sonny and Me: Cher Remembers, calling her grief "something I never plan to get over".[35] During the same year, Cher also released her twenty-third album "Believe" that was highly influenced by Bono's death, and in the booklet Cher wrote "IN MEMORY OF SON".[36]

When Cher and Bono divorced, they agreed to split revenue from the songs recorded together. When Bono died, one-third of his interest passed to wife Mary Bono-Mack, and one-sixth interests were split amongst his children. Cher sued UMG in 2009, claiming she and Bono's heirs were owed $5,000,000 in "hidden" royalties.[37]

Filmography

Film
1965 Wild on the Beach Themselves
1967 Good Times Various characters
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1967 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Jerry and Ramona Cameo, in the third series' episode "The Hot Number Affair"
1970 The Sonny & Cher Nitty Gritty Hour Themselves Special Television, one episode
1971–1974 The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour Themselves/Various characters Three Seasons; Nominated - Emmy Award, four times
1972 The New Scooby-Doo Movies Themselves/Dubbing Voice in the episode "The Secret of Shark Island"
1974 The Sonny Comedy Revue Himself
1975 The Cher Show Herself
1976–1977 The Sonny & Cher Show Themselves Two Seasons
1998 Sonny and Me: Cher Remembers Herself Special Television, one episode; Tribute to Bono

Discography

Main article: Sonny & Cher discography

See also

References

Books

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Early Bio". home.att.net. http://home.att.net/~movie.stars.1950/sonny_cher.html. Retrieved 2009-04-19. 
  2. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 14-15
  3. ^ Taraborrelli, p. 30
  4. ^ a b "Cher Biography". Yahoo! Movies. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800023318/bio. Retrieved 2009-04-19. 
  5. ^ "CHER: Back To The Dance Floor!". About.com. http://dancemusic.about.com/cs/features/a/CherBackDean.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-20. 
  6. ^ a b c Lamb, Ward (1999-10-13). "Sonny & Cher". Rhino Handmade. http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/wilderness/468/ward.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-28. 
  7. ^ "Sonny and Cher". classicbands.com. http://www.classicbands.com/sonnycher.html. Retrieved 2009-04-19. 
  8. ^ a b "Cher Tickets". ticketluck.com. http://www.ticketluck.com/concert-tickets/Cher/index.php. Retrieved 2009-04-24. 
  9. ^ "The Billboard Hot 100: "I Got You Babe"". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=379&cfgn=Singles&cfn=The+Billboard+Hot+100&ci=3070324&cdi=8813828&cid=07%2F31%2F1965. Retrieved 2009-04-23. [dead link]
  10. ^ "Sonny and Cher History". onlinetickets.com. https://www.onlinetickets.com/info/concert_tour/cher/sonny_cher_history.html. Retrieved 2009-04-23. 
  11. ^ "Looking Down on Ghosts". justabovesunset.com. http://www.justabovesunset.com/2006/id186.html. Retrieved 2009-04-19. 
  12. ^ Ladd, M.E.. "Cher Sounds". Cher Scholar. http://www.cherscholar.com/recordreview.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-28. 
  13. ^ "Cher biography". IMdB. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000333/bio. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
  14. ^ {{cite web |url=http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-05-07/gossip/27063834_1_request-change-reality-tv-star
  15. ^ "Sonny and Cher Biography". musicianguide.com. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608002274/Sonny-and-Cher.html. Retrieved 2009-04-19. 
  16. ^ a b "Queen of Gay Glamour". mondostars.com. http://www.mondostars.com/entertainment/cher.html. Retrieved 2009-03-16. 
  17. ^ a b c d e f g "Sonny and Cher shows". TVParty.com. http://www.tvparty.com/sonnycher.html. Retrieved 2007-01-28. 
  18. ^ "Cher Artist Information". tickco.com. http://www.tickco.com/cher_concert_tickets.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-16. 
  19. ^ "The Sonny & Cher All I ever need is you album (A new producer)". cherscholar.net. http://www.cherscholar.com/all-i-ever.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-21. 
  20. ^ "Sonny and Cher". tvclassics.com. http://www.tvclassics.com/sc.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-09. 
  21. ^ "Sonny and Cher divorce". history.com. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=3403. Retrieved 2009-05-09. 
  22. ^ "Cher Awards". IMDb.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000333/awards. Retrieved 2009-05-09. 
  23. ^ "Sunday Evening". tvobscurities.com. http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/fall74.php. Retrieved 2009-05-09. 
  24. ^ "Cher". TV.com. http://www.tv.com/cher/show/2946/summary.html. Retrieved 2009-01-28. 
  25. ^ "Mego Catalog Library: 1976 Cher". megomuseum.com. http://megomuseum.com/catalog/1976/cher1.shtml. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
  26. ^ "Cher Dolls Fan Site". hieroglyph.net. http://www.hieroglyph.net/frameset4.html. Retrieved 2009-04-12. [dead link]
  27. ^ Bianco, Robert (2006-08-13). "Mike Douglas, former TV show host, dies". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-08-11-douglas-obit_x.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-28. 
  28. ^ The New Mexican, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, Nov. 29, 1987, p. 35, accessed through NewspaperARCHIVE.com on March 13, 2009
  29. ^ Aiken Standard, Aiken, South Carolina, USA, Nov. 15, 1987, p. 3, accessed through NewspaperARCHIVE.com on March 13, 2009
  30. ^ "1999 Emmy Awards". imbd. http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1999. Retrieved 2009-07-17. 
  31. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (1998-01-07). "Sonny Bono, 62, Dies in Skiing Accident". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/07/us/sonny-bono-62-dies-in-skiing-accident.html. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
  32. ^ "Sonny Bono killed in skiing accident". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/06/bono.obit/. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
  33. ^ "Cher's Eulogy for Sonny". About.com. http://dying.about.com/od/famousmemorableeulogies/a/sonny_euolgy.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-24. 
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  35. ^ "Cher biography". Superior Pics.com. http://www.superiorpics.com/cher/. Retrieved 2009-04-24. 
  36. ^ Liner notes, Cher: Believe, Warner Bros. Records, 1998
  37. ^ Belloni, Matthew (2009-06-02). "Cher sues UMG over royalties". Hollywoodreporter.com. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/music/news/e3i8ec34ef6f7ad9c74994328867d09add1. Retrieved 2010-10-07. [dead link]

External links

Information-sites:

Sonny & Cher
Studio albums
Compilations
Soundtracks
Other albums
Videos
The Nitty Gritty Hour  · The Ultimate Collection  · The Christmas Collection  · I Got You Babe  · The Sonny & Cher Hour  · In Concert/I Got You Babe (Live)
Television
The Sonny & Cher Nitty Gritty Hour  · The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour  · The Sonny Comedy Revue  · The Sonny & Cher Show  · Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers
Concert tours
Wondrous World Tour  · Sonny & Cher Show Tour  · All I Ever Need Is You Tour  · Sonny & Cher's Last Tour
Related topics

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Gale Musician Profiles. Contemporary Musicians © 1989-2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Sonny & Cher.  Read more

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