Sonny & Cher - The Two of Us

As a kid variety shows were a staple. We had less than a handful of television stations, no one had cablevision, and colour TV was a futuristic concept. Like many families, our main set was a piece of furniture with the television set in the middle of a console. Rabbit ears were always being tweaked, or on occasion being held and grounded by one of us to help bring in a clearer picture.

This was a time when there were summer replacement series, when the other hosts and performers went on vacation. My memory is foggy on the finer points on a lot of this, but I have memories of Johnny Cash, Andy Williams and a bear, The Smothers Brothers, my hero Glen Campbell, and of course Sonny & Cher. That show was somehow hilarious and cool at the same time. Seeing Cher on top of a piano singing "I'm a vamp." It was their song "I Got You Babe" that I never got sick of. Something about the oboe part just slays me.

Then one day me and my cousins were picking up pop and chips at the corner store and I hear Jeff yell over from the magazine section that Sonny and Cher were getting a divorce. That confused me, who would leave Cher? Then I bought a pop and chips and moved on.

Aside from their television performances, none of which I can honestly say I remember very well, the only song I associated with them was "I Got You Babe" and while it was always a song I liked, the thought of actually getting anything by them was about as likely as me taking The Partridge Family Seriously. I will say that the cover to Cher's Half Breed was pretty awesome, and it wasn't until puberty that I figured out why. 

Several months ago during one of my frequent trips to the dollar bin I found a rather rough looking, but playable copy of The Two of Us. There was no date on the jacket, and I figured it was a best of compilation. It was a double album, and I couldn't figure out how they could have enough hits to stretch things out to a double album. Turns out it wasn't a best of, but it was a compilation that contained their best known tracks, "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On" which was okay with me. The songs came from two of their early albums. Look at Us came out in 1965 when Cher was nineteen and Sonny was thirty. Look at Us was quickly put together after "I Got You Babe" had hit number one on both sides of the world. It paid off, and the album would go gold in the US. The second record contained songs from their third  album In Case You're in Love released in 1967. 

It was kind of eye opening reading up on Sonny in particular. He was actually the real deal. He was a protege of famed, now disgraced producer Phil Spector, and Sonny wrote and produced the big songs they performed. Sonny was working with the "Wrecking Crew" (studio musicians) and recording at the legendary Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, which closed in 1984, and shortly afterwards burned to the ground. Yup, better to burn out than to fade away. 

Where as they looked like counterculture hippies, they were very much part of the mainstream although they did seem to serve as a bridge between the two. Just take a look at the inside photo of their "opulent" house, that looks more like grandma's house than anything ... but still, it wasn't the house of a counter culture hero.

I have to admit that I had expected to shit all over this, and act like I was somehow above stooping to the level of liking Sonny & Cher and that my childhood memories and tastes were somehow stunted and didn't know any better. I had sharpened my pencil, and had prepared some pithy zingers and loaded up my quiver in anticipation of listening the albums ... yes, plural.

The first album kicks off with the big song "I Got You Babe" and I was immediately transported back in time. My goodness, this song is still so good. Even Cher's lifeless mannequin like delivery of some of lines doesn't spoil the song. Cher could sing, but at times her delivery was so dead it was disturbing. It still worked, and Sonny's earnest counter vocals just helped to accentuate Cher's contribution.

Often opening with a killer song spells doom for everything else to follow, and I found that Sonny's wall of sound and eclectic song choices actually helped to keep things moving forward. You never really knew what was coming up next. The songs were all bathed, dipped, and covered in thick syrupy arrangements. A couple of the covers were interesting choices, "Unchained Melody" and "Then He Kissed Me" were pale compared to the originals but there was a certain charm to the songs, that almost seemed made to be performed on a variety show. The second side was more standard inoffensive pop. I have to admit their messy cacophonous version of "Let it Be Me" stood out, even Cher's drifting in and out of pitch just added to the charm. Before I knew it the first album was over, and I found that I had enjoyed it more than I thought, and while this era of the '60s and the whole wall of sound stuff was never really my jam as it was already old and out of fashion by the time I started getting into music, there's something about going back now and hearing well crafted pop that feels warm and welcoming.

Moving on to the second record, things start out big with "The Beat Goes On" a song that apparently was reworked by the session players to put in the walking bass line that gives the song the swing and swagger. Carol Kaye who played bass on more albums than you can count says she came up with it, and no doubt she did, but as album credits were a sketchy thing (if they were shown at all) in the '60s it's no surprise her name was omitted on the inside jacket. It's a really good song, and while it doesn't have the nostalgic magnetism "I Got You Babe" has, it's a wonderful pop song and I suspect if it was anyone other than Sonny & Cher it would be considered a classic. All of the songs on side one except for "Groovy Kind of Love" were penned by Sonny Bono. I have to admit that the closer "Podunk" was a genuine WTF moment that I went back and played it again. They may not have known it at the time, this shit was made for TV.

The second side opens with "Little Man" which was a wonderfully quirky song with a goofy almost Oom-Pah Pa beat. It's one of two songs on side two written by Sonny. Of the songs I've heard that are new to me, this is one I really like. The rest were covers, which was pretty common at the time. Although their versions are recognizable they aren't all that memorable. "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" and "Stand By Me" are paint by numbers covers. Which is too bad as the arrangements are messy and bombastic and with a little energy in the vocals may have put them over the top. Or not. They didn't and that's how it is. Forever.

While Sonny & Cher will forever be known for their variety show, it's was their early album's that set the stage for them to make the transition from being an audible experience to a visual spectacle. They were fun to watch, they were safe and dangerous at the same time. Their recordings are now more of a footnote to Cher's career, but Sonny was the real deal and while they haven't aged particularly well (me trying to be nice, let's be honest there's a lot of filler on these two records) there are gems here worth celebrating (really).

I can now hold this album in my hands and say, "I Got You Babe" - yeah, I'll see myself out.