THE STORY OF A SONG: Sonny & Cher - "I got you babe" (1965)

Sonny Bono lived a self-made American success story. Born in Detroit to Italian immigrants, then raised in California, Bono started his career as a songwriter before getting a break as a studio gofer for Phil Spector.

This experience put Sonny and his then-girlfriend—Cherilyn Sarkisian, whom everyone just called “Cher”—in proximity to a lot of big acts, as well as giving him insights into Spector’s production style and access to studio time. Sometimes, Cher sang backup on Spector songs, but Sonny thought he and Cher might have promise as a recording act on their own. As the young couple worked to establish their career, Sonny spent nights writing songs at a piano while Cher slept. Inspiration struck one evening when Sonny wrote a song about Cher herself and the life he hoped they might be building together.

“They say our love won’t pay the rent / 

Before it’s earned, our money’s all been spent / 

I guess that’s so, we don’t have a pot / 

But at least I’m sure of all the things we got / 

Babe / I got you, babe”

Simple and sentimental, the song’s point was Sonny didn’t need anything else as long as he had Cher. Excited, he went to get her to hear the song. Her reaction was less than encouraging. “Sonny woke me up in the middle of the night to come in where the piano was, in the living room, and sing it,” Cher later recalled in an interview with Billboard. “I didn’t like it and just said, ‘OK, I’ll sing it and then I’m going back to bed.’”

Like it or not, the single spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, sold more than a million copies and launched Sonny & Cher’s career. In the 1970s, the couple starred in a hit TV variety program—closing the show every week with “I’ve
Got You Babe” - and became one of America’s favorite couples until their marriage ended in a very public divorce in 1975.