Sonny and Cher
July 16th 2011 06:46
Cherilyn Sarkisian or Cher first met Salvatore Bono (Sonny) in a Los Angeles coffee shop when she was sixteen.
Bono 11 years her senior was working for record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood at the time when the two became friends and later marrying.
Cher started as a session singer, singing backup on "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes as well as "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers.
The couple's first incarnation was as the duo "Caesar and Cleo" but September 1964, they released "Baby Don't Go" under the name of Sonny & Cher, which became their first top ten US hit.
The duo released their first album Look at Us in the summer of 1965 and contained the smash hit "I Got You Babe".
The couple soon appeared on many of the top television shows of the era including The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, Hollywood Palace and Top of the Pops.
They released their second studio album in April 1966, The Wondrous World of Sonny & Cher and engaged in a limited yet successful world tour.
Dressed in animal skins with Bono wearing knee high caveman boots and Cher going barefoot 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.
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".
In 1967 Sonny and Cher released their third album, In Case You're In Love which contained two hit singles, both written by Bono, "The Beat Goes On" and "Little Man".
But by 1968 Sonny and Cher's career had stalled. Bono decided to forge ahead, carving a new career for the duo in Las Vegas resorts before welcoming their first child, Chaz Bono in 1969.
Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman while guest-hosting The Merv Griffin Show and the duo earnt their own variety show in 1971 which later went on to win 15 Emmy Award nominations during its run.
By the third season of the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, the marriage of was falling apart; the duo separated later that year and the show imploded.
Sonny and Cher went their separate ways and the rest is pretty much history - with Cher eventually finding a lucrative career in song and Hollywood while Bono finding a low key acting career and later entering politics, eventually becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives before his tragic death in a ski accident in 1998.
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