floor she’d worn the day before and put them on—day after day (29).
According to Cher, “I was living by my wits. Belligerent. Sarcastic. People kept away from me. I was Sadie Thompson on the outside. But still a secret, heavenly star on the inside” (31).
She was staying with one of her girlfriends when she met the man who was going to change her life. His name was Sonny Bono, and he was working for the famous hit-making record producer Phil Spector. Sonny’s claim to fame at that point was the fact that he and Jack Nitzsche wrote a hit song that was recorded by Jackie DeShannon—and later by the Searchers—called “Needles and Pins.” It was the success of that song that helped land him the job as Spector’s assistant.
Sonny Bono was born Salvatore Phillip Bono on February 16, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. He moved with his parents to Los Angeles, and before he discovered that he had a knack for writing hit songs, he held several odd jobs as a waiter, a truck driver, a construction worker, and a butcher’s assistant. When he was thirteen years old, Sonny was working in a grocery store, and while unloading boxes of Coco Joe’s cookies, he jotted down a song idea he entitled “Koko Joe.” It was first recorded by Don & Dewey, and a few years later, the Righteous Brothers recorded it.
Another one of his songs, “She Said ‘Yeah,’ ” was recorded by Larry Williams in 1958. The Rolling Stones were later to revive it in 1965 on their December’s Children ( and Everybody’s ) album. At the time that he wrote these songs though, his track record for success was spotty at best.
However, he was totally hooked on music. According to Sonny, “As long as I can remember, I said, ‘I’m gonna get into music.’ I’ve always wanted to be involved in music—I never really had any other thought growing up. So it wasn’t ‘Do I wanna be a doctor? Do I wanna be a lawyer?’ I just wanted to be in music. So I just kept doing it until I figured out how to get there” (32).
By 1958, Salvatore found himself married to Donna Rankin, and the couple had a daughter named Christy. Taking both of their first names, he called himself Don Christy, and began making the rounds of the record companies in a attempt to sell a song he had recorded called “High School Dance.” Another song he penned and recorded, “Wearing Black,” never went anywhere either. Instead of focusing on him as a singer, a company hired him as a record producer, and soon he was in the music business. By the time he hooked up with Phil Spector, his marriage had dissolved, and he was floating around from apartment to apartment.
In 1963, when Cher left home, she moved in with her girlfriend Melissa Melcher, and she landed a job at a See’s candy shop. “A girlfriendof mine said she wanted to introduce me to this nice guy who was supposed to be kinda famous,” Cher remembers of her first encounter with Sonny Bono (33).
I was in a huge restaurant, and I didn’t know him, but everyone else did. They said, “There’s Sonny,” and I swear to God, I saw him walk through the door, everyone else faded away. I just saw him—this thin guy with long black hair, Beatle boots, and a gold chain around his hand. I was knocked out. I didn’t think he was handsome, but I’d never seen anyone with long hair and boots and stuff like that. All my girlfriends said, “He’s kind of ugly, he has a big nose, and he’s strange-looking. You could do a lot better.” But there was something about him. He was good, stable, older—sweet. He was a record promoter. He had just left his wife and he liked my girlfriend, the one I was staying with, but she didn’t like him at all (18).
Telling his side of the story, Sonny Bono recalled their first meeting slightly differently. According to him, “When I met Cher, I was a [record] promotion man. I went to a radio station, and then I went to Aldo’s, where we all went for coffee. There’s Cher with her boyfriend.