Merseybeat has wiped a generation and a genre from the world's pop music charts. Superbly crafted American Tin Pan Alley teen epics are being sniffed at by DJs chasing the young hipness muse. Records by beehive virgins and pompadored glamor boys are dismissed without a hearing. Pop is eating itself, and the meal is all things American apple pie. The Gods haven't yet decided that folk rock is The Great White Hope, but they may have decided on Sonny & Cher as contenders.
For starters, the duo's image could only be described by the politest of squares as "artistic", with the pair initially mistaken for imports. By Summer's end, savvy New Yorkers who eschew TV will stop in their tracks and gawk open-mouthed at Sam Goody's Sixth Avenue window display for the first Sonny & Cher LP.
Secondly, Sonny & Cher are quite able to back up all-important image with the ability to make commercial records on their own terms. Neither hacks nor naive kids, they're blessed by being not only in touch with the market but capable of delivering finished product to same as a package. Based on "Baby Don't Go"'s promise (and some completed cuts) Ahmet Ertegun is therefore no fool in signing them to Atlantic's pop subsidiary Atco for $5,000 upfront, generous studio time and 8.5% of sales. For his nickel a disc and Sonny's creative freedom, Ahmet gets five years worth of finished masters and a chunk of publishing, along with Greene & Stone (above right, with Sonny & Cher) middlemen-ing with York-Pala Productions.
(York-Pala Productions is a division of Greene-Stone Enterprises, and tasks itself with producing, selling, leasing and loaning master recordings to larger record companies in exchange for a bigger slice of the pie than those companies usually pay. Understanding Greene and Stone's complex business model necessarily invokes following the money: apart from their exclusive management of Cher and Sonny & Cher, York-Pala Records delivers product most likely to enrich the publishing divisions of Greene and Stone. While Sonny will collect as producer (and sideline Harold Battiste Jr as arranger for that credit) his own publishing company (Chris-Marc) isn't included in the most lucrative aspect of the hit records to come - publishing will be shared between Greene and Stone's Five-West and Atlantic's Cotillion. In terms of real dollar sales, a throwaway B-side can be more lucrative than a hit A-side, depending on who's publishing what.)
Whereas "Baby Don't Go" is moody, the first submission to Atco is a near-overdose of cheer. Constitutionally similar to the previous disc, "Sing C'est La Vie" substitutes accordion for melodica with Cher taking the verses while Sonny eggs the choruses on with a French accent. More Eurovision than Folk Rock, Ahmet balks and asks for better. "Sing C'est La Vie"'s U.S. destiny will be the flip side of the next effort (Atco firmly rejects Quetzal-ish B-sides) but it'll be big in France and a Top 5 smash in Australia.
SONNY & CHER (Atco 6345): "Just You" (SB) / "Sing C'est La Vie" (BGS)
"Just You" doesn't move quickly in either context. It sells regionally - again on the West Coast. Taken at a much slower clip than anything before, it's a sumptuous slice of Folk Rock history. Heavily indebted to Spector and Gold Star Studios, "Just You" can only be experienced as three and a half minutes of heaven. The lyric is strictly teen lament but the whole thing is a technical masterpiece in aural dimension: the majority of the background is far, far back but deafeningly so, a la "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin". Upfront are vulnerable vocals with minimal but effective percussion from castanets. Overdubbed string sustains and plucks whistle and weave elegantly throughout, and the whole production is tied together with a perfect mix. Some folks however hear more than the Wall Of Sound: melodically "Just You'''s resemblance to the Ronettes' "Baby, I Love You" gets the lawyers fired up and Sonny & Cher will consequently add two Spector / Greenwich / Barry compositions to their album later in the year. But what the hell - "Just You" finally makes it into the Top 20 around that time.
CHER (Imperial 66114): "All I Really Want To Do" / "I'm Gonna Love You" (SB) Both Arr HB, Prod SB
When Imperial Records realize Sonny & Cher are signed to Atco, they offer a solo deal for Cher. Matching Atco's $5,000 they get Sonny as producer, Cher as artist and York-Pala Productions as the intermediate record company.
Hanging out a Byrds show in Hollywood in March and hearing their riff-ridden take on Dylan's "All I Really Want To Do", Sonny also hears Cher's next solo single. Imperial however sit on it for months, and only release it late in May when the Byrd's version is scheduled for release. Cher's is on air and in stores a week before The Byrds'. Both versions chart but Cher prevails. Despite press claims of a "friendly battle", acrimony prevails on the part of Byrds producer Terry Melcher.
The B-side ("I'm Gonna Love You") will be repurposed for the movie "Good Times" in 1967.
SONNY & CHER (Atco 6359): "I Got You Babe" / "It's Gonna Rain"
Ahmet Ertegun has faith in Sonny & Cher but prefers the B-side of the next single. "It's Gonna Rain" (a bluesy little weather report in the Caesar and Cleo vein) was recorded pre-Atco, and is Sonny & Cher's cameo in the B-grade teen exploitation movie "Wild On The Beach".
(The provenance of alternate recordings of "It's Gonna Rain" are dubious: while Sonny & Cher lip-sync the well-known version in the movie, RCA's original soundtrack version is a longer stereo alternate with Sonny singing over the top of a duet, with production and arrangement credits owed to By Dunham and Jimmie Haskell respectively. Some pressings of Atco 6359 reflect this credit but don't denote which version is actually on the record.)
Sonny's however certain that "I Got You Babe" is the winner, and one-ups Ahmet by breaking it on KHJ Boss Radio in L.A. The swichboard duly gets lit up and Atco gets shipping orders for "I Got You Babe". Within three weeks those orders are within the neighborhood of three million, and Sonny & Cher are sitting at Number One. And just in time too: all of Atlantic's prestige isn't keeping it solvent. The unexpected pop smash on Atco is enough to save the label conglomerate from being sold off at a fire-sale price.
In the Summer of '65 "I Got You Babe" just appears out of nowhere, apart from 
Sonny noticing a number of "Babe" songs kicking around. Cher's not impressed ("Not one of your better songs, Son...) and requests a modulation at the bridge. In 12/8 time it's almost a waltz and her instinct is on the money: the C-F-G kick makes the song fly. With a superb (though uncredited) arrangement by Harold Battiste leading with bassoon counterpoint to a phalanx of sentimental guitars and bells and punctuated with oboe, "I Got You Babe" paces itself against a rising and crashing orchestral wall of sound. A false ending with some showy drumming overdubs by Hal Blaine augmenting Frankie Capps on the second half punches the whole thing up to a unique and polished production. An onlooker reports "about fifty" musicians leaving the June 7 session at Gold Star - in reality fourteen players plus technical crew crammed into a tiny studio. But they earned every penny they made. Sonny has produced more than a good record: it's an exuberant proclamation of unconditional and guileless love.
These are the days when a record can be on-air as soon as a lacquer is struck and a test pressing is delivered to a station and Sonny's hastily-recorded "Laugh At Me" ten days later becomes an instant radio smash in Los Angeles while "I Got You Babe" is catching fire nationally. Atco's delight at the thought of pressing a million of the next Sonny & Cher hit is short-lived: Sonny informs them it's not a duo record but another sensation...think Dylan, then think solo Sonny. The ensuing contract puts the previous deals to shame, but the wheels of fate have been turning in Sonny & Cher's favor since Independence Day.
On July 3rd, Cher enters the Hot 100 and their performance at the Beach Boys Summer Spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl is duly noted by the Kinks manager Larry Page. His hunch that their style and polish will hit massively in the UK brings an offer to promote a short British tour the following month.
The London pop machine is groaning under the weight of surly boy bands with limited talent, unlimited unprofessionalism and inability to move with the times. Sonny & Cher move into the void early August with all the right stuff, as a highly impressed music media sell them to fans eager for something new. Not only do Sonny & Cher leave the UK as major stars, but they return home as same, with the remarkable achievement of five singles in the Top 100, and "I Got You Babe" at the top of the heap.
But success is a hungry beast, and Sonny soon finds that he has to back up three separate recording contracts with follow-up singles and more. The view from the top is daunting: aside from already-booked personal appearances and necessary television, those contracts are demanding three hit singles as well as two albums. And it falls upon Sonny to come up with them all in terms of writing, performing and production of finished tracks for release.
Cher's ear-worm in London is The Fortunes' "You've Got Your Troubles", so Sonny "adapts" it as "But You're Mine" and cuts it in New York (with The Lovin' Spoonful" as musicians) and presents it to Atco as Sonny & Cher's next hit. Ahmet Ertegun's response is the most dry "So where's the hit?" .
SONNY: (Atco 6369) "Laugh At Me" (SB) / SONNY'S GROUP: "Tony" (Instrumental) (SB, G&S) A-side Arr. Harold Battite Jr.
SONNY & CHER: (Atco 6381) "But You're Mine" (SB) / "Hello" (SB, G&S) A-side Arr. HB
CHER: (Imperial 66136) "Where Do You Go" (SB) / "See See Blues" (SB, G&S) Both Arr HB, Prod, SB
SONNY: (Atco 6388) "The Revolution Kind" (SB) / SONNY'S GROUP: "Georgia & John Quetzal" (Instrumental) (SB, G&S) A-side Arr HB
SONNY: (Atco France 7) "The Revolution Kind" (SB) / SONNY & CHER: "Je M'en Balance" (Hybrid edit of "But You're Mine" and "Mais Tu Es A Moi" (SB, A. Etegun)
"But You're Mine" and "Where Do You Go" follow in the back-draft of the duo and Cher's smash hits in September. The former fares well for what it is, but what it is not is being in "Babe's" league. Melodically strong in the verse it builds to nothing. As a production it meanders along with no help from an uncomfortable and uninspired lyric. Ahmet Ertegun pens a French lyric for it as it dies in an effort to get it off the ground in French-speaking territories, but Sonny's French vocals are edited out of "Mais Tu Es A Moi" to create "Je M'en Balance" for release in France. (The unedited version will turn up in Canada a year later). Cher's "Where Do You Go" should do better than it does...a beautiful record from start to finish, but her wistful reading of alienation is quickly forgotten. Ahmet has one eye on an international market, and launches Atco in France with much fanfare for its current headliners, as well as touting the availability of their original song publishing catalog for translation and cover recordings. It's a worthwhile effort too: songs which haven't performed especially well Stateside are all picked by French and Italian stars, becoming substantial hits in those regions.
From Sonny the solo entity, Atco will harvest no riches since they haven't in fact bought a piece of The Next Poet of The Generation: solo Sonny will be a one-hit wonder. "The Revolution Kind" is a great piece of janglepop, but as a follow-up to "Laugh At Me" it sees Sonny distancing himself from the protestation of the first instance. It fails to sell, as it fails to inspire a youthful march to the political center, as defined by Sonny. To add insult to injury, Sonny's B-sides get the instrumental Quetzal treatment. Or, in the case of the duo's "Hello", no music at all. Just Sonny with a hello and thank you message for the fans, a few piano clunks and nothing much at all from Cher. Realistically, nothing else is available for release since nothing original has been written or recorded.
A COMPREHENSIVE LISTING OF WORLDWIDE SONNY & CHER 60s COVER VERSIONS IS HERE.
The Fall of 1965 sees an historic achievement for Sonny & Cher in terms of charting singles.
But in the business of selling records, current achievements aren't sustained cash flow. Apart from hit singles, both Atco and Imperial want albums, and they want them quickly. Atco has four tracks in release, and as "I Got You Babe" takes off Sonny hurriedly cuts eight covers to make up an album by the end of the month, and the old Caesar & Cleo cut "The Letter" is acquired. (It's been recently re-released as a Sonny & Cher record on Vault in the U.S. and many foreign labels, with some sales.) "Something You Got" is out, and the track goes to DJ Reb Foster for release on Loma. Stylistically diverse to say the least, the LP LOOK AT US can't be milked for another single but it flies off the racks at the rate of 200,000 per week.
Imperial are also snipping at Sonny's heels for a solo Cher long-player. With just a few tracks in the can, Sonny creates a surprisingly cohesive folk-rock album over a couple of July sessions at Gold Star. A rush-release, the LP ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO is in stores weeks after the 45 starts charting and goes Top 20. Folk rock is getting the American pop industry back on its feet for who knows how long, and Cher's first album is a standout of the genre. And more so because she's a relevant girl in a market dominated by boys.
The inclusion of Cherilyn's "Dream Baby" girl-group epic is a little jarring, but some very good songs from very good writers like Dylan, Chris Andews, Ray Davies and the Queen of Imperial herself - Jackie Deshannon - give Cher an opportunity to define herself.
Reprise however aren't demanding more Sonny & Cher. Company chief Mo Ostin has never been happy with the way things panned out regarding Greene and Stone flogging them "Baby, Don't Go" as a Sonny & Cher record when Reprise was already set to release Caesar & Cleo's "Love Is Strange". The solution of releasing them both on the same day sees some sales for the former, but the label has gone cold on any future dealings with Bono, Greene or Stone.
While it wasn't a smash in 1964, upon re-release in 1965 "Baby Don't Go" does very well for Reprise. Sonny has to suffer the indignity of a BABY DON'T GO LP by Sonny & Cher & "Friends"...the majority of whom are Caesar and Cleo. Other friends at the party are represented by their demos and non-hits...some up to five years old.
MORE DETAILS OF SONNY'S 1964 /1965 OFF-LABEL PROJECTS & ENSUING CASH-INS ARE HERE.
The many faces of success are staring Sonny & Cher down as Fall turns to Winter. Everybody wants a piece of Sonny & Cher: Sonny's astringency towards Reprise should be offset by budget label Metro's release of "Those Fantabulous Strings Play The Sonny & Cher Hits" - all ten songs see royalties directed to the business of Sonny & Cher in ways that the Reprise LP didn't. It's virtually impossible to make an honest living as recording stars since legal and illegal forces are invariably at play to deprive an artist of income, regardless of contracts. The duo is however somewhat safe with Atco since Ahmet Ertegun is legit when it comes to dealing with a mafia which preys on virtually every aspect of the industry.
But while Greene and Stone have undoubtedly hustled Sonny & Cher to the top while locking in their take, it's not long before armed mobsters are replacing creditors at the York-Pala offices. What the managers hold is what organized crime wants: management contracts and more. It's the common fate of many performers, and the many streams of income Sonny & Cher are generating have become especially attractive to a forced takeover. Greene and Stone hold firm, but Sonny knows the business only too well. He knows why Phil Spector carries a gun.
And so the show goes on. Culturally and musically Sonny & Cher have caught a wordwide wave. Musically they've attracted attention - good and bad - from their peers. Outtakes from "The Beach Boys Party" evidence the group mean-heartedly ridiculing them while records which emulate their style start appearing. Reactionary anti-protesters The Spokesmen and Mac Davis do "Like A Babe" and "I Protest (Babe)" amongst the slew of soundalikes. Those of ordinary vocal chops can always do a snarling Sonny impersonation and have it read as "Dylanesque".
The Sonny & Cher Look is adored and copied worldwide as much as it's vilified by squares. Growing up in Los Angeles, Cher's felt the sting of looking like an ethnic outsider, but by 1965 she's a beauty role-model for teenage girls. For the time being, Sonny & Cher are able to negotiate the tricky and rapidly changing gender divide between boy and girl record buyers.
Another ball to be juggled is touring. Or more to the point: renegotiating fees for shows already booked. Striking while the iron's hot by tripling appearance fees attracts a lawsuit over non-appearances on a package tour Gene Pitney's running.
At the end of October Sonny makes another attempt at a smash duo single, but Atco rejects "I Look For You". It's "I Got You Babe" done sideways. Of the (apparently lost) six tracks cut at Gold Star during the second week of December only one will see the light of day or a disc-cutting lathe.
SONNY & CHER: (Atco 6395) "What Now My Love" / "I Look For You" (SB) Both Arr HB, Prod SB
This time round, magic doesn't come from Sonny's pen. Sonny & Cher will kick off the New Year in fine form. Their powerhouse rock 'n' roll version of Gilbert Becaud's standard "What Now My Love" will be a wordwide hit. On-the-beat guitars and a throbbing bass figure open the production. Shuffling percussion hurries along a relentlessly building orchestra...all of it lifted with Cher's beloved modulations. Both sides will be the last York-Pala productions for Sonny and Cher on Atco - Sonny is hard at work extricating himself from Greene & Stone.
But it was a very, very good year.
