Well, who could forget it, really?
There they stood, on the stage, the oddest of couples. It seemed she was a full foot taller than him and full of glamour. And he saddled up beside her, in his goofy outfits and ridiculous mustache.
Then the music would cue up, and she’d start the song.
“They say we’re young and we don’t know
We won’t find out until we grow.”
Then he’d chime in.
“Well, I don’t know if all that’s true
‘Cause you got me, and baby, I got you.”
Yes. Sonny and Cher. Their song, I’ve Got You Babe, hit number one on the Pop Charts on this date, August 14, 1965.
I only remember seeing them perform this during their weekly TV program, The Sonny & Cher Show.
They first met in a Los Angeles coffee shop in November 1962 — these two — Cherilyn Sarkisian and Salvatore Bono. She was only sixteen then, and Salvatore was eleven years her senior.
Of course, she was probably in awe of Bono, as he worked for record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. So that unlikely couple started out as best friends. But eventually, they turned the corner and became lovers.
They told the world they were married in 1964, but it wasn’t an official marriage by law. Just sort of something they came up with between them. They were legally wed after their only child, Chaz was born. That was in 1969.
They had varying levels of success during the 1960s and 1970s, appearing on several different TV shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, Where The Action Is, and many more.
But, probably their most significant career boost was “I Got You, Babe.”
The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series, but it turned out to be an immediate hit, quickly reaching the Top 10. But all good things must come to an end, I suppose.
By the third season of the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, the marriage of Sonny and Cher was falling apart. The two of them separated later that year, 1974.
Things apparently got a bit nasty, and the show went all to hell. But apparently, the public couldn’t get enough, and it was still rated in the top 10. They suffered through a very public divorce which was finalized on June 26, 1975.
There’s a lot more to them, of course.
Sadly, Sonny died in a skiing accident on January 5, 1998. He ran right into a tree while skiing at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe — only 62 years old.
And today, Cher is still doing her thing. She is 76 years old and has probably had a little too much plastic put into her face.
But there they were, once. Fresh-faced and in love. Best friends, facing the world in their beautiful youth. And then?
Time marches on, doesn’t it? It takes us to new places along paths we could never have imagined. And it never asks our opinion on the matter. It just does what it does, for better or for worse. And we stride along with it.
It’s all going somewhere, I believe, and I think we are supposed to learn and grow along the way. Sometimes this learning will make us sad. Other times, it will make us happy. And that is life, as “time” sings its song to us: “I’ve got you, babe.”
===========
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
— Albert Einstein
============
Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.
— Max Frisch
===========
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
— Confucius
==========
Who’s got who, babe?
