"My laptop was completely ruined when my office flooded. Even the hard disk was wrecked; but I didn't lose a single document."
 | Cher News - 20-March-2000 |  |
www.cherland.com
by Deborah Wilker
Born in El Centro, Calif. in 1946, Cherilyn Sarkisian was a poor, fatherless kid whose eight-times-married actress-mother struggled by on occasional singing gigs and bit parts. At 16 Cher left high-school and home to take acting lessons in Los Angeles, a plan that quickly derailed when she met 28-year-old producer-songwriter Sonny Bono at Aldo's Coffee Shop in 1963. "It was as if the whole room went to soft focus, like Tony and Maria at the dance," Cher has said often of their chance meeting. Though Cher was instantly smitten, Sonny wasn't. The two lived platonically at first, sharing an apartment but sleeping in separate twin beds. While he toiled as an apprentice at Phil Spector's hallowed Gold Star Studios, Cher kept house. It wasn't until her mother discovered the arrangement and tried to separate them, that the pair rebelled and proclaimed their love. Soon Cher was tagging along to Spector's, harmonizing behind the Ronettes, Darlene Love, Glen Campbell, The Righteous Brothers and any number of up-and-comers. Recognizing her star potential, Bono hoped to record Cher as a soloist. But Spector didn't see much in the lanky, long-haired teen. She was so nervous during her first recording sessions, that she insisted — to everyone's chagrin — that the vocally-challenged Bono sing alongside her. Surprisingly they sounded good together, and a duo was born. Performing initially as Caesar and Cleo, the pair played bowling alleys and skating rinks to little effect. Her first solo recordings, released under the pseudonym Bonnie Jo Mason and as Cherilyn, were also flops. Their fortunes turned in 1965, when — as Sonny and Cher — they hit gold with the Bono-penned "I Got You Babe," a sweet ode to married hippie life, (though they didn't officially tie the knot until '69). Within weeks their previous songs, the folkish "Baby Don't Go" and "Just You,% | Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
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