V
Cheryl Sarkisian was born in 1946 in
California and by the 1960s, she had teamed up with Sonny romantically and
professionally too. 1965 gave the duo
the No. 1 U.S. hit I Got You Babe, which seems to have been a standard bearer
for the duo ever since.
The “couple” were so at ease in public,
which gave them their own TV series in 1970 called The Sonny And Cher Nitty
Gritty Hour, they later moved to CBS in 1971 for the long running Sonny And
Cher Show. The show went on to win 15 Emmy Awards and the guest list was
amazing.
Tina Turner, Glenn Campbell, Jackson Five and Neil Sedaka were just a few
of the names that appeared on this groundbreaking series. Being in the public
eye week after week made the job easier of getting great pop records into the
charts.
1971 saw No.1 Billboard hit (UK No. 4)
Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves coming from the album of the same name and a gold
disc in the U.S. The song was originally called Gypsys, Tramps and White Trash.
The song is all about a girl raised on a traveling show and the horrors that she
sometimes endured.
Around 1974 Bono and Cher started to go
through a very messy divorce, but still kept the TV show going for one more
season. Cher appeared on many one off Cher titled shows and one even gave her a
further Emmy in 1979. Sonny and Cher made their last TV appearance together on
the Mike Douglas Show in 1979.
Cher followed this hit in the U.S. with
singles like The Way of Love and Half Breed. But it was not until 1974 when she
had her next hit in the UK and the States called Dark Lady.
The song was all about a fortune teller and an unfaithful lover and the death of two people by gunshot. Very romantic.
Single wise that was it for the 1970s,
although Cher did have hits in the 1980s, and a No. 1 in the 90s too. Although she did have a U.S. top ten with
Take Me Home. During the 60s and 70s she had eleven top thirty hits and five
albums in the top thirty. She had five gold albums too, and a string of platinum
hits.
Cher had only one top ten hit in the 1970s. Amazing.
Sonny Bono died in 1998 in a skiing
accident.