Sonny, who was 11 years older, worked as an assistant to legendary record producer Phil Spector. Before long, the couple started to hit it off.
Bono found work for Cher as a backup session singer, where she performed on many of Specter’s recordings. The Ronettes’ super-hit Be My Baby and The Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling were just two of many songs Cheer worked on.
Sonny and Cher first collaborated on their own records in 1964. However, their first singles weren’t really what the audience wanted. This all changed in September 1964, when they released Baby Don’t Go.
Cher’s mother Georgia Holt had her brother Mickey hire the duo to open for the Righteous Brothers, and it was the start of a long and successful career which would culminate with Cher being labeled “The Goddess of Pop.
Cher and her family
Baby Don’t Go became the duo’s first hit, and proved the beginning of a highly successful pairing that lasted until the mid-1970s.
And on a personal level, the love between Cher and Sonny grew.
Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Though Cher was immediately interested in Bono, he was actually said to be more interested in one of her friends.
“I was with my girlfriend, who was really beautiful,” Cher recalled. “He liked her, so he didn’t really say anything to me. He was like, ‘Oh yeah, kid.’”
She added that “everyone just disappeared” when she first saw him, recalling that “he was the most unusual person I’d ever seen.”
Soon, Cher and Bono were living together. They began a romantic relationship, though this took a while to blossom. According to Cher, Bono simply wasn’t physically attracted to her at first. That soon changed, and the couple began dating for real.
In 1965, the two got married – and at the same time, started to work on their professional music careers.
Most importantly, the couple had a child, Chaz Bono, together. He was originally born Chastity Bono on March 4, 1969. However, because he was a celebrity child, he became famous immediately and it wasn’t long before TV audiences got to see him.
Chaz Bono – early life
