From the Tiger Beat Archives, November 1965
The two strangers, a boy and a girl, sat next to each other on counter stools in Aldo’s Coffee Shop on Cahuenga and Hollywood Boulevard. She was darkly beautiful, he was like a cute stuffed teddy bear, both had long hair. They started talking.
“My name’s Sonny Bono,” he said.
“I’m Cherilyn LaPier,” she said.
After a while, they parted without making a date. He had decided she was stuck-up, and she thought he was coming on too strong. Chance brought them together a month later. She was a spectator at a Phil Spector recording session, and he was singing background vocals for the Righteous Brothers. She began to have a secret liking for him but wouldn’t admit it. He was gazing at her from the corner of his eye, slyly. They only exchanged hellos. But she kept returning to the sessions where he worked.
One day, a chorus singer failed to appear, and the frantic Spector asked if any girl in the studio could sing. “Gee, I don’t know,” Cherilyn replied, “I could try.” He hired her on the spot after a one-minute audition.
When Sonny and Cher stood side by side singing into the same microphone, Spector discovered their harmony and began using them on many jobs. They had a “funk” duo sound, he said, perfect for his background choruses. Sonny also realized Cher had a natural voice but needed training. He began to coach her.
And that’s the beginning of the sweetest love story of the rock-pop musical age. Married two years ago, they have never separated. It’s true they didn’t even like each other for the first few months, but now they are so much in love they hate to part for even a day. Let Cher tell the rest of the story of how this happened:
“Even while Sonny was coaching me and working with me on different jobs, we didn’t like each other very much, or rather, he didn’t like me. He thought I was too weird and conceited—but I wasn’t really conceited, merely shy.”
“It took a long time for him to realize it, but when he did, we really began to click. We began to fall in love so fast we were both dizzy.
“One night at a recording session, Jack Nitzsche was playing the piano and I was singing along with him during a coffee break. I didn’t know anyone was listening until the producer, Jimmy Bowen, came running up shouting, ‘You have a great voice, Cher, I love it. Sing more.’
“That really shook me up because I’d really never thought of singing as a career. When I tried singing along with records and radio, the girl vocalists were too high for my voice and the boys were too low. I’ve been called a baritone, but I’m not sure what I am yet. I have the same range as Sonny. Some people say they can’t tell whether it’s me or Sonny singing, but that’s because I sing Sonny’s range and style. Sonny says I have a better voice quality than he has, but my singing is always his way of singing.
“Anyway, Jack Nitzche’s praise went right to my head, and I wanted to be a singer then and there. Sonny kept saying I wasn’t ready yet. He really bugged me! I accused him of trying to hold me back because he didn’t want me to sing. I hurt his feelings, I know, but he kept right on teaching and coaching me—because that’s how he is, Mr. Wonderful. Of course, I know now I was far from ready at that time.
“I told him I really wanted to be an actress. I’d studied acting when I was 14 and 15 years old with Jeff Corey, the youngest student in his classes, and he’d said I had great potential. Now I didn’t know if I could ever be an actress. It’s easier to know if you are a good or bad singer because you are right there in front of an audience. People listen and have instant opinions. I’m much more comfortable singing.
“Sonny and I were going steady now, and I went with him when he was singing background music with the Ronettes, Crystals, Blue Jeans, and Righteous Brothers. When I didn’t get to sing with them, I was depressed, so depressed! But I wouldn’t tell him why I had these horrible moods.
“Sonny would say, ‘I know what’s the matter with you, Cher, you want to sing.’ And I’d tell him, ‘Shut up, I don’t want to sing at all.’ But he knows me so well. I wanted to sing so much I’d work for nothing, just so I could sing. I did work background choruses for groups just to get the experience. And Sonny, who was always paid for his singing, learned the music business that way.
“Two years ago we were married and we’ve lived happily ever after. We had goals. We began singing together in small clubs three nights a week for one hundred dollars, which works out to about thirty-three dollars a night, and I was happy. Sonny began writing songs like Koko Joe, You Bug Me Baby, Needles and Pins, The Boy Next Door, and other songs which have since been recorded by top artists. We were signed on the Reprise label, but we couldn’t get along with them, so we bowed out and were left up in the air.
“But Sonny insisted I was now ready for the Big Time as a vocalist. He talked Imperial Records into a contract for me. I made a disk, Dream Baby, for Imperial, but it didn’t happen. Though they were disappointed, they had faith in me and wanted more. Their faith was eventually justified when my All I Really Want To Do, on Imperial, became a smash hit.
“The first big break came about a year ago when Sonny wrote Baby Don’t Go. He finished it in the middle of the night and was so excited he began calling everyone in the business to tell them about it. Reprise gave us a recording date. I was supposed to sing it alone, but in rehearsals, our voices blended so well it was decided to make it a him and her record
“But when we had the master record in hand, Sonny had some second thoughts about how it should be done. He asked to have it done again, his way. Reprise said no, they already had a good disk. So, we told them, ‘Forget it. We’ll do it our way, and we’ll pay for it ourselves.’
“That’s how Sonny is. He isn’t satisfied with less than the best. If he feels strongly about something, he’ll go and do it no matter what sacrifices it involves. I love him for that quality.
“To finance the remake, we hoarded or sold everything we had except the piano he needed for his songwriting. We rented a tiny, unfurnished place in the hills and made all our own furniture—beds, tables, chairs, and everything. Man, were we poor! And we were happy!
“We paid for the new recording of ‘Baby Don’t Go,’ which became our first nationwide hit. Nothing could stop us now, we told ourselves. All the record companies began wooing us, and Ahmet Bertegun, president of Atlantic Records (Atco), signed us for all the ‘him-and-her’ records we wanted to do. And that’s how I came to sing solo on Imperial and with Sonny on Atco.”
“I Got You Babe” is the new Sonny and Cher chart-smasher. Sonny’s loner, “Laugh At Me,” is now climbing the charts like a homesick angel is based on an actual incident that happened at Martoni’s Italian restaurant on Vine Street, when some Wisenheimers began to taunt him about his long-haired looks. He went home and wrote the song that very night.
“It’s amazing how hostile some people can get if you don’t conform to the way they think everybody should look,” Sonny said. Sometimes it really bugs us, like we’ve had people call us up in the middle of the night to call us long-haired freaks. Sometimes we insult them right back, other times we just laugh. Generally, we ignore it. Anyway, we’re happy because the kids love us, and they’re the ones who matter most. The kids are wonderful to us, and we’re very thankful and grateful. They know whether you love them or not; they sense it keenly. The most gratifying part of this business is the teenagers who want to hear us, buy our records, touch us, and be close to us, and we’re happy because we can make them happy.
“We’ve been asked how we keep from being big-headed in the face of our successes. My answer is that we’ve worked too long and hard and have no right to be conceited. All we really are, when you come to think of it, are servants of the public.
“We’ve been mobbed at shows and we accept it as an occupational hazard. The fans don’t mean to hurt anyone, but they jump on you because they’re afraid you’ll get away before they can get your autograph or even touch you. It would be a sad day for us if the fans just ignored us.”
That’s hardly likely now. Sonny and Cher have made many guest appearances on all the top TV teen-age dance/music shows, have toured with the Righteous Brothers and Beach Boys, and have many new shows, tours, and albums coming up—including a European tour
They have had many thrills in their professional life. One was their appearance at the Hollywood Bowl with the Beach Boys, Righteous Brothers, and other top acts. Another was a Sam Riddle show at the Palladium. Sonny came alone as Cher was sick in bed. He received a loud welcome by himself and had started to sing when the crowd interrupted with a tremendously wild ovation. Not knowing why, he looked around and saw Cher coming in from the wings up to the mic. She couldn’t stand being sick in bed and missing the fun, so she came anyway. “That made me realize how much the fans loved me,” Cher said later, “and I almost cried.”
Girl fans don’t dig girl singers too much, as you can tell from the names on the best-selling charts. Somehow, they did love Cher all the way to the top. I asked her why.
“Maybe it’s because I’m married and not competition,” she said. I didn’t think that was reason enough.
“Maybe they like me because I’m their kind of person. I was kicked out of school because I wouldn’t conform to school regulations about clothes. Most teenage girls can sympathize with that! They took me off suspension eventually, but it was a terrific hassle while it lasted. The teachers hated me, and the kids liked me.
“Many teenage girls just like to see a couple very much in love like Sonny and me. It’s a kind of dream all girls have, of meeting a boy they love, marrying him, and living happily ever after.”
“Do you ever have any scrapes?” I asked.
“Sure we do,” said Sonny, “but it’s never serious. We are together night and day and go everywhere together. Little squabbles are natural.”
“Who wins?” I asked
“I don’t know who wins,” said Cher, “but I know I’m the one who ends up apologizing! I can’t stand for Sonny to be mad at me.”
“Cher has the sunniest disposition in the world,” Sonny chimed in, “but sometimes it gets obscured by the clouds.”
“Sonny sometimes wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, grumpy as a granny, and shouts, ‘Gimme my coffee right this minute, get me my socks and shorts, run my bath!'”
“Sometimes I have to wait on her hand and foot, too,” says Sonny, “or I get the dirty looks.”
“We’re good for a battle scene about once a week,” Cher says, “but we love it.”
I asked, “What’s your formula for getting along so well?”
“You have to be very much in love…” Sonny started to say.
“As much as we are,” Cher intruded.
“I think we are accepted by everyone because everybody knows we’re in love. Our love comes from giving, not grabbing.”
That’s the secret of their lives: all the love they can give to each other, to their fans, to all their associates. They have the secret of it all—love begets love.
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