Cher (9 page)

Meanwhile, Cher’s first solo album,
All I Really Want to Do
, peaked at Number 16 in America, and Number 7 in England. In November of 1965 another single from the LP, “Where Do You Go,” written by Sonny, was released as a single. It peaked at Number 25 in the United States. In September of 1965, Sonny’s “Laugh at Me” hit Number 10 in the United States, and Number 11 in England. Sonny, Cher, or Sonny & Cher were all over the airwaves throughout 1965. They were on the first ascension up the roller-coaster ride that was to be the nature of their professional careers and their personal lives.

The story of “Laugh at Me” is entirely autobiographical, and has to do with Sonny being expelled from a chic Los Angeles restaurant.

Thanks to Martoni’s. What happened, when we dressed like we did, and my hair was almost like it is now, and Cher’s [long straight] hair, and the way we dressed. . . . we used to go into Martoni’s all the time. They were friends of ours. But, to dress like that in ’64, ’65, it was a real conservative era. People would think you’re strange or gay or weird or freaky or whatever, and it was a real threat to people. We knew it caused a reaction and that’s why we stuck to it. But, it would also cause a hostile reaction with some people. So when you went into a restaurant like Martoni’s we’d get some tough times. One time, some guys just wanted to beat me up. I got on the phone while I was eating there, and we had friends then that were killers, so we threw them out of the restaurant! So Mario Antoni got mad. I said, “What are you getting mad for? They were gonna beat the hell out of me. And I asked you to move the guys and you didn’t.” So they said, “Don’t ever come back again.” I said, “Come on, you’re my friends.” And they said “no.” Both Cher and I felt real dejected. That night, we went home, she went to bed and I wrote “Laugh At Me,” which was really over that incident. Then we recorded it. It was the only hit that I had as “Sonny Bono” (38).

In addition to “Laugh at Me,” in 1965 Sonny released his second single, “The Revolution Kind.” In December of that year it peaked at Number 70 on the
Billboard
charts in America.

It was also in 1965 that Cher and Sonny made their movie debut. The early 1960s witnessed a huge tidal wave of surfer movies like
Beach Party
(1963),
Beach Blanket Bingo
(1965),
Beach Ball
(1965),
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
(1965), and
Ride the Wild Surf
(1964). These films were usually light on plot, heavy on bikinis and bronzed bodies, and featured performers like Lesley Gore, the Supremes, the Four Seasons, James Brown, or other up-and-coming pop stars of the day who would make cameo musical appearances. Usually they would show up in a concert sequence at the local surfers’ hangout. The movie that Sonny & Cher appeared in was entitled
Wild on the Beach
. The film starred Frankie Randall, Sherry Jackson, Cindy Malone, and Sandy Nelson, and the musical guests included Jackie & Gayle, the Astronauts, and last but not least Sonny & Cher. In the plot, the girls in the cast have rented a beach house, only to find that a group of boys have also leased the same house—with comical consequences. In a beachside club scene Sonny & Cher perform their song “It’s Gonna Rain,” which appeared on their first album,
Look at Us
.

Due to the media blitz that took place in London when Sonny & Cher were thrown out of the Hilton Hotel, they were considered big media stars in England. When Twiggy came to the United States with her boyfriend Justin, it was Sonny & Cher who led the Hollywood greeting committee. And when the Rolling Stones arrived in Los Angeles on their first visit to California, they were Sonny and Cher’s houseguests. According to Cher, “When the Stones came to America for the first time, they wanted to stay with us. [I said,] ‘We haven’t got any furniture.’ They said, ‘That’s O.K., we’ll rent cots,’ because they were really uptight around the people they were with over here. No one looked like them, and they felt insecure” (18).

Overnight success can be a strange thing to handle, especially when you’ve lived the majority of your life not having any money at all. Remembers Cher,

Being eighteen and walking on a stage and hearing ten thousand people screaming and yelling your name—the whole thing can make you lose all concept of who you are. Sometimes I’d get off the stage with my clothes and sometimes I wouldn’t. But, overall, Sonny kept on top of the situation for me. I was like a worker in a beehive, mostly, just doing my gig (18).

Just after she became a singing star, Cher went on a shopping spree that she’ll never forget, mainly for the lesson that she learned from it.

I went into this store one day, just in my regular duds, and I saw a Rudi Gernrich outfit that I wanted. I asked this saleslady “Can you tell me what colors you have this outfit in?” She said, “It’s a very expensive outfit.” I said, “O.K. What colors does it come in?” “Well,” she said, “it comes in red and black, green and yellow, and purple and red.” And I said, “O.K. I’ll take all three.” I never wore the outfits. I went home and told Sonny what I’d done. I said, “Sonny, I’ve really done a dumb thing.” I was embarrassed, but I copped to it. And he said, “Well, now you did it once, and so it’s not so important.” But I did some other silly things. Like, if I’d go to buy a electric fry pan, I’d buy two, to put one away, in case someday we couldn’t afford one. So I have this whole stockpile of stuff (18).

According to Cher, “There should be something like a school for stars. Nothing prepared me for all this” (10). Indeed, nothing that her mother told her, nor anything any of her teachers taught her, could have coached her for the lifestyle that she suddenly found herself amidst.

1
. In his autobiography
And the Beat Goes On
, Sonny Bono recalls that Red’s last name is Turner; in her autobiography
The First Time
, Cher gives Red’s last name as Baldwin.

4

GOOD TIMES/BAD TIMES

In 1965 and 1966, directly following their smash hit “I Got You Babe,” Sonny & Cher were a bona fide phenomenon in the record business. According to Cher, she really knew that she and Sonny had made it into the big time when they were booked to perform on America’s traditional Sunday night television showcase,
The Ed Sullivan Show
. They sang three songs: “I Got You Babe,” “But You’re Mine,” and “Where Do You Go?” Cher was comically pleased to be introduced to Sullivan’s TV audience as his “dear little
paisans
 . . . the current sensations of the recording field . . . Sonny &
Chur
” (25).

Every one of Cher’s solo albums from the 1960s had at least one, and sometimes up to three, Bob Dylan songs included on them. In fact, Cher’s first solo hit on the charts was the Dylan tune “All I Really Want to Do.” The Byrds had also released their version of the same song. When a battle on the singles charts threatened to erupt between Cher and the Byrds, the group’s record label—Columbia—simply began promoting the “B” side of the Byrds’ single, “I Feel a Whole Lot Better.” Roger McGuinn of the Byrds publicly conceded defeat to Cher. “We loved the Cher version. We just love the song, period. We didn’t want to hassle. So we just turned our record over” (42).

Cher’s version of “All I Really Want to Do” went on to become her first big solo hit, ultimately hitting Number 15 on
Billboard
magazine’s charts, climbing to Number 9 in England. She sings one verse in a high register, and it is directly followed by a verse she sings in a lower range.
At first listening, one isn’t certain whether it is all Cher, or if Sonny is singing the lower parts. Cher herself confirms that it was actually her singing both parts, and not overdubbing them; she had to simply switch back and forth in between the high parts and the low parts “live” in the studio. Not long after she had a hit with “All I Really Want to Do,” Sonny & Cher were in New York City at a recording studio, and who should they run into but Bob Dylan himself. Much to her surprise, Dylan walked right up to her and told her what a great job she did with his song. She was totally knocked out by his compliment.

Throughout the 1960s Cher was to record an astonishing number of Bob Dylan compositions, ten in fact. In addition to “All I Really Want to Do,” they include “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “I Want You,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “Masters of War,” “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You,” “I Threw It All Away,” and “Lay, Lady, Lay.” It is a miracle that no one has released a compilation album entitled
Cher Sings Dylan!

In April of 1966, ATCO Records released the second Sonny & Cher album,
The Wondrous World of Sonny & Cher
, which hit Number 34 in the United States and Number 15 in the United Kingdom. It opened with an exciting Wall of Sound interpretation of George Gershwin’s “Summertime.” Sonny & Cher’s dramatic and bigger-than-life delivery excitingly kicked off this album, which was the strongest of their three original studio albums. Trading off choruses of this song from the musical
Porgy and Bess
, both Sonny and Cher sound great on this perfect opening cut. Their cover versions of the Exciters’ “Tell Him,” Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me,” and the Zombies’ “Leave Me Be” proved perfect choices for them vocally. As a songwriter, Sonny brought to this perfect Sonny & Cher set his compositions “But You’re Mine,” “I Look for You,” and “Laugh at Me.”

In June of 1966, the single “Have I Stayed Too Long” peaked at Number 49 in the United States and at Number 42 in the United Kingdom. The group’s next single was the song “Little Man,” which was released in October of 1966 and made it to Number 21 in America and Number 9 in Britain. Their next single, “Living for You,” which was released in November of that year, made it to Number 87 in the United States and to Number 44 in the United Kingdom. Through it all, Sonny & Cher were permanently on the record charts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, month after month throughout the year 1966.

Their distinctively odd outfits made Sonny & Cher instant symbols of
revolutionary
au currant
fashion. It wasn’t long before bell-bottom pants
à la Cher
were the latest rage, and the couple was regular guests on such conservative middle-of-the-road television shows as
The Hollywood Palace, The Ed Sullivan Show
, and even TV specials starring Sammy Davis Jr. and Danny Thomas. One of the strangest invitations they received was a request to perform at a private party given by platinum tycoon Charles Engelhard that included such guests as Jacqueline Kennedy and Diana Vreeland, the editor of the fashion bible,
Vogue
magazine.

Recalls their former manager Brian Stone,

Ahmet Ertegun [of Atlantic Records] asked if Sonny & Cher would like to play at a very private party thrown in the Waldorf Towers by Charles Engelhard. It was to be very exclusive, only twelve people. We were all flown in from Los Angeles to New York, including the band, and taken to this suite in the Towers. We were going to play in what was a small living room of an apartment that rambled on and on, with platinum everywhere. The walls were covered with it. Cher should have been pleased she’d be meeting Jackie Kennedy but she was complaining about not being invited to dinner. She thought the entertainers should be treated like guests, too. But after the performance, Jackie and Cher got along just great. Jackie was talking in that whisper of a voice, and Cher was delighted Jackie enjoyed her music. Diana Vreeland, the fashion magazine editor, was also there that night and noticed Cher’s clothes. Cher wore those old furs and bell-bottom pants. She never liked to wear dresses because she thought her legs were ugly. But Vreeland liked her look and started using Cher in her magazine (43).

Remembers Cher,

The very social Charles Engelhards had a party, and Jackie Kennedy was going. They asked her if there was anyone she’d like to have there and she wanted us! So we went and performed in their apartment. Sonny wore his bobcat vest, and we went after dinner because we weren’t sure how to act. I met Diana Vreeland there. I was nineteen, and she said, “My dear, you have a pointed head and you’re beautiful. Look at you, you’re so skinny. Why aren’t you in magazines?” All I could say was, “I don’t know. . . .” I was like that then. I met Richard Avedon, whom I adore, and he wanted to photograph me. We were only supposed to do two pictures, but we ended up spending ten days and
Vogue
ran twenty pictures (34).

In a matter of months, the duo of Sonny & Cher went from nowhere to an act that was releasing chart hits on three different record labels. In October of 1965, Sonny & Cher’s song “Baby Don’t Go” was reissued by Reprise Records, credited this time to “Sonny & Cher” instead of to “Caesar & Cleo.” It hit Number 8 in America and Number 11 in the United Kingdom. In November of 1965, the duo’s second ATCO single, “But You’re Mine,” peaked on the charts, hitting Number 15 in America and Number 17 in England. Meanwhile, Vault Records reissued the song “The Letter,” which—this time around—made it to Number 75 in America.