Cher (15 page)

Sonny’s first attempts at reviving the recording career of Sonny & Cher were equally as disastrous. On May 31, 1971, Kapp Records released its first single by the duo. On one side was the Paul Anka composition “Real People,” backed with Sonny’s composition “Somebody.” Actually, both of those songs were beautifully written and sung; however, this time around, the undoing of them was based on the fact that they didn’t fit what was hot at the time on the record charts. “Real People” sounded like something from the Burt Bacharach/Hal David songbook, with a beautiful horn section in the middle of it. “Somebody” had a better chance of capturing an audience; however, it wasn’t dramatic enough to get added to any radio station play lists.

Denis Pregnolato, who worked as a manager for Sonny & Cher in the 1970s and was a close personal friend of Sonny’s, recalls, “When they put Cher’s ‘Classified 1A’ out, nobody would play it because it’s about a guy dying in Vietnam. I remember that Johnny Musso was very nervous, because he’d just signed them, and this was what Sonny was coming up with” (55).

Since
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
was in the works, Kapp Records was in a big rush to get an album out on the marketplace.
Because the duo had started filming the television summer replacement series, and were still performing at nightclubs regularly, there wasn’t time to plan and record an album. According to Johnny Musso, “So, I had them record live at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, where they’d already been scheduled to play. Ahmet Ertegun was kind enough to give us permission to record several of their old hits, and the album went Gold instantly” (55).

The album,
Sonny & Cher Live
, was released on September 3, 1971. On the cover of the album was a photograph of the duo amidst their act. Sonny was dressed in a tuxedo, bow tie, and ruffled shirt. Cher was wearing a black mesh top, holding a microphone in her right hand. With her arm bent at the elbow, she is seen dangling her left hand, which is bent at the wrist as though she was displaying her manicure. This was to become the classic Cher singing pose, one she instantly became identified with in the 1970s.

Sonny & Cher Live
only contained four songs that had been hits for the duo: “What Now My Love,” “The Beat Goes On,” “I Got You Babe,” and Sonny’s solo “Laugh at Me.” They also performed three Beatles’ songs (“Got to Get You into My Life,” “Hey Jude,” and “Something”), some contemporary ballads (“Once in a Lifetime,” “Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You),” and “More Today Than Yesterday”) and the Irish standard “Danny Boy.” The recording also included some of the duo’s emerging comedy bits in between songs. Denis Pregnolato is credited as the album’s producer.

As part of his monologue to introduce “Laugh at Me,” Sonny would stand in the spotlight alone and say to the audience,

Seven years ago I had my hair about this long. At that time there were no Beatles, and there were no . . . there was nothing then, and people didn’t know how to react. I mean they thought that was very strange. When you had your hair this long people just . . . I wasn’t into anything revolutionary or anything like that, actually I couldn’t afford a haircut, and so. . . . [crowd laughs] To people then it, really, it was very strange back then. I’d walk down the street minding my own business, and people would look at you and somebody would say “Faggot!” BOOM! [another big laugh from the audience] (54).

As odd of a novelty song as “Laugh at Me” was, Sonny warmly performed it in a heartfelt fashion. Suddenly this song sounded like it meant so much more to him than it had in the 1960s when he wrote it. Back
then he was singing the song so that people would stop pointing at him and laughing. In 1971, when
Sonny & Cher Live
was recorded, Sonny was singing with determination, as though it was now a vow that he would somehow pull Sonny & Cher out of the financial mess they had gotten themselves into.

Not only did the
Sonny & Cher Live
album sell over 500,000 copies, it made it to Number 35 on the American album chart. Musso recalls, “It wasn’t very well recorded, and we cut it all in one night, but it was a real fast Gold album. Our first pressing was 25,000 copies, which were sold out immediately. The name of Sonny & Cher was still magic, and the success of that album really opened the eyes of the people at MCA [Kapp and Decca’s parent company]” (55).

Johnny Musso decided that an outside producer had to be brought in to record Cher solo and Sonny & Cher. Something had to be done to jumpstart both acts’ once-golden recording careers. The man he chose was Tommy “Snuff” Garrett, who just happened to live next door to Sonny & Cher in Bel Air. Garrett remembers, “They were on real hard times while I was redoing my house in Bel Air. Johnny [Musso] had signed them and they were looking for a producer. I said to myself, ‘I can get a hit on her.’ The first song I cut on Cher was ‘Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves’ ” (55).

Cher was about to get a huge hit that was tailor-made just for her. Bob Stone was a writer who had his songs covered by pop artists like Bobby Sherman, the American Breed, and Shades of Blue at the time.

Snuff Garrett told me that he’d gotten back in the business, and mentioned Cher. He was looking for something between “Bang Bang” and “Son of a Preacher Man” [a Dusty Springfield hit]. I ran home and listened to everything she’d done, and what I liked the best was done in minor keys. She’s [half] Armenian, and has an ethnic quality; her voice is deep and dark and heavy. Before long I had a verse and mock chorus “Gypsys and White Trash.” They liked it, but I told them I could do better. Within a few days, they were recording “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” (55).

“Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” was so dramatic and ear-catching that it was exactly the song for Cher to kick right over the goalpost with her sound, delivery, and perfect timing. It was absolutely irresistible, and it proved that Snuff Garrett knew more about Cher’s voice and her persona as a singer than Sonny did. The way Cher sings on the four albums she did with Garrett during her Kapp/MCA days in the early 1970s is representative
of one of the most successful eras of her entire recording career. In the 1960s on Imperial Records, even on songs with a strong musical stance—like “Bang Bang” and “You Better Sit Down Kids”—Cher’s vocals sound comparatively light and tentative. On every cut on the 1971 album
Cher
she is commanding, exotic, and immediately ear-catching.

Another song on
Cher
, “The Way of Love,” had been a hit in 1965 for British singer Kathy Kirby. A dramatic and sweeping ballad, Snuff thought it was just right for Cher—and he was right. “I tried to fit the songs to her. I never thought of Cher as a singer; she was a stylist, which is quite different. I’ll take a stylist every time—when you turn on the radio and hear that voice, you know it’s Cher” (55).

The
Cher
album also included her interpretations of contemporary hits like James Taylor’s “Fire & Rain” and the Hollies’ “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” The selection of these two songs represents part of a continuation of her career-long ability to take songs by male folk/rock singers or groups, record her own interpretive versions, and make the songs seem as if they were written for her. Now that she had already recorded ten different Bob Dylan songs in the 1960s, it was time to explore some other male rocker songbooks in the 1970s. During her years at Kapp/MCA Records, Cher was also to borrow from the songbooks of Three Dog Night, the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Seals & Crofts, and Leon Russell.

For the rest of the
Cher
album Garrett chose songs that echoed her ability to excel at songs that dealt with drama and crumbling relationships: “I Hate to Sleep Alone,” “I’m in the Middle,” and the controversial “He’ll Never Know,” which was about a woman who neglected to tell her husband that their son was not fathered by him.

“Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” was an instant hit, literally shooting up to Number 1 on the American music charts and up to Number 4 in England. The week of November 19, 1971, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the single version of “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” Gold, for over a million copies sold in America (joining “Bang Bang” as her second solo million-seller). The song was so popular that eventually the record company reissued the
Cher
album under the title
Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves
. When “The Way of Love” was released as her follow-up single, it sped up the charts into the Top 10, logging in at Number 7 in the United States. The
Cher
album made it to Number 16 on the American album chart, and during the week of April 13, 1972, it was certified Gold by the RIAA.

It was Johnny Musso’s goal to repeat the success that he had bringing back Cher’s recording career with Sonny & Cher. He again assigned this task to Snuff Garrett. Musso had in mind a song called “All I Ever Need Is You,” which had been recorded by Ray Charles. It had been written by a man named Eddie Reeves, with Jimmy Holiday. Reeves had mentioned to Musso that he had been thinking of recording it himself, as he was a recording artist as well.

I ran into Johnny Musso before a session, and he asked if I was going to do “All I Ever Need Is You.” When I told him that I wasn’t—I didn’t like the song that much—he had me send him a copy of the Ray Charles album. Sonny & Cher had just exploded with their television show, “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” was Number One for Cher, and they were looking for a comeback single for Sonny & Cher. Whatever they picked would have gotten a lot of attention (55).

Johnny Musso says, “I played Sonny the song one afternoon, that night we recorded it, and the next day we had an acetate copy to [radio station] KHJ. Within 24 hours from the time I played it for Snuffy, it was on the air. It became the theme song for Sonny & Cher’s TV Show” (55).

The single of “All I Ever Need Is You” became an instant hit for the duo, making it up to Number 7 in America and Number 8 in the United Kingdom. Sonny & Cher were officially back on top! The follow-up single, “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done,” repeated the success, making it to Number 8 in the United States. The resulting Sonny & Cher album on Kapp Records,
All I Ever Need Is You
, was released in early 1972. Thanks to Snuff Garrett’s production skills, and his instinctive ability to pick hit singles, the project was a huge success, literally bringing Sonny & Cher’s recording career back from the grave.

The
All I Ever Need Is You
album also included the duo’s version of “More Today Than Yesterday,” “United We Stand,” and the Fortunes’ “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling.” To keep Sonny happy, the album also contained three of his compositions: “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done,” the previously recorded “Somebody,” and a Sonny solo version of the song “You Better Sit Down Kids.” “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done,” which was a cute novelty number, was coproduced by Sonny and Snuff Garrett.

All I Ever Need Is You
made it to Number 14 in America and was certified Gold by the RIAA, becoming the duo’s second Gold album, in May of 1972. Two months later,
Sonny & Cher Live
was certified Gold as well,
bringing their total to three albums certified for over 500,000 copies sold in America.

Barry Rudolph worked as second engineer with recording engineer Lenny Capps.

On Sonny & Cher sessions, it was Snuff and Sonny working together but separately. Snuff was running the show, and Sonny was being Sonny—running around, joking with the musicians, and helping Cher with her phrasing on the vocals. When she was doing the vocals, they wouldn’t let anyone watch, she was pretty self-conscious. Sonny had a pretty good ear; if something didn’t sound right he would notice. It was more a matter of him not liking something musically than picking out specific mistakes—more of an overview. And on his own sessions. Sonny was trying to be Phil Spector, acting as master of ceremonies (55).

After the show was on the air for eight weeks, a knock came on the front door of Sonny and Cher’s Bel Air home. It was their favorite house salesman, Tony Curtis. He announced to them that the Holmby Hills house he owned, which they had visited and which Cher loved, was for sale. The Holmby Hills house was absolutely huge and way too big for a family of three. It had fifty-four rooms and 30,000 square feet of space. But Sonny knew how much Cher loved that house, so they bought it, for $750,000. According to Sonny, “The mansion was the pinnacle of [Cher’s] Cinderella fantasy” (35). Bono claimed that it only took Cher three days to furnish it. The house was also perfect for entertaining. According to Sonny, “Our home always [was] full of friends. Most of them—except Bob Mitchum, Steve McQueen and the Monkees—[weren’t] in show business” (50). They were later to regret such an extravagance.

The TV show was a huge hit, and Sonny & Cher were in great demand in concert and in nightclubs and casinos. When they weren’t taping their television series, they were on tour. On the road with Sonny & Cher was a top-notch band, including drummer Jeff Porcaro, keyboard player David Paich, and bass player David Hungate. After the break-up of Sonny & Cher, that trio would add guitar player Steve Lukather and become known as Toto. Hungate remembers those big, extravagant Sonny & Cher concert tours, when the TV show was hot and the duo was again producing hits.

Being with Sonny & Cher on the road was much more fun than Toto. We were traveling on Hugh Hefner’s jet, complete with Playboy bunnies, we were well-paid, and got respect. There was an incredible diversity of people at our concerts, ranging from Oral Roberts in Tulsa, to Bob Dylan in Las Vegas, to Karen Silkwood in Oklahoma. It was ironic that Cher later appeared in the
Silkwood
movie. Karen had entered a Cher look-alike contest while in high school. Her boyfriend who was an old friend of mine, was played by Kurt Russell in the movie. We got to meet people like Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, and Ed Sullivan, all those old-time show business guys (55).