January 1998 Nightline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML_FgoYw1HM
SONNY BONO on "SUNNY" the song.
Record Mirror, October 1, 1966
SONNY
had quite a lot to say about the L-, "Sunny" controversy. When I spoke
to him over the transatlantic 'phone, he was very anxious to clear up
any points about making a 'cover' version of the Bobby Hebb iong for his
wife Cher. "Originally the track was a cut off Cher's new LP" said
Sonny. "Now, Bobby Hebb's record was issued a couple of months ago in
Britain and it didn't mean a thing. I thought that it was a dead record,
and the single by Cher was put out. Then, about three weeks ago Bobby's
record started to happen. "I don't like making cover records. I never
intended this to be a cover record and I hope that Bobby's record gets
the suc-cess it deserves. I hope that the British record buyers will buy
what they wanna buy, you know. I hear there's another ver-sion of
"Sunny" — by Georgie Fame?" Sonny and Cher arrived home in the States
last Wednesday after a tour of Britain and Europe and found themselves
up to their necks in work. But their film has finally been finished and
there's an album of soundtrack numbers coming from it. "Actually, the
record company wants me to put out a Sonny & Cher album before the film
track. You know, the record companies are always getting on to you for
material. But I don't know if I can do it for them. It's a lot of
physical labour and I'm not putting out an LP just for the sake of it.
If I feel there's something worthwhile to put out then I'll do it." The
film is likely to be issued in Eng-land and Europe before it gets
American release, and the odds are that Sonny & Cher will come over
here to promote it. It will be any time after November — Sonny expects
to return about the beginning of January. Sonny talked about "Little
Man" which is now a hit in the States after a late re-lease date. "It's a
fun record. It's something different. I feel good about it doing well.
And I was pleased about the British studio that we used to finish it off
in. It's like the studio I use at home. That's an old sort of studio
but really funky. I don't like these new studios very much. "The reason
why we recorded "Sunny" in the first place, for Cher's LP, was because
it expresses a relationship — it's a fine song but I never thought it'd
be out anywhere as a single." NORMAN JOPLING
Sonny Bono and the Illuminati
7:46 in this video a bit of Sonny singing "Sunny"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksag6RpBFrA
RIP SONNY BONO January 5, 1998, less than a week after
Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, died in a similar
ski accident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxPi3GGxnf4
Cher speaks at Sonny's funeral
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdHdd5ejAeY
Sonny Bono recites
Play That Funky Music White Boy
I Am Woman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3PbKGNVOyc
Sonny Bono on Letterman,
Married 4 times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKk7jdwNHbE
Sonny and Cher, the Reunion
Letterman show, 1980s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpAUbSPjtYw
SONNY BONO on "SUNNY" the song.
SONNY
had quite a lot to say about the L-, "Sunny" controversy. When I spoke
to him over the transatlantic 'phone, he was very anxious to clear up
any points about making a 'cover' version of the Bobby Hebb iong for his
wife Cher. "Originally the track was a cut off Cher's new LP" said
Sonny. "Now, Bobby Hebb's record was issued a couple of months ago in
Britain and it didn't mean a thing. I thought that it was a dead record,
and the single by Cher was put out. Then, about three weeks ago Bobby's
record started to happen. "I don't like making cover records. I never
intended this to be a cover record and I hope that Bobby's record gets
the suc-cess it deserves. I hope that the British record buyers will buy
what they wanna buy, you know. I hear there's another ver-sion of
"Sunny" — by Georgie Fame?" Sonny and Cher arrived home in the States
last Wednesday after a tour of Britain and Europe and found themselves
up to their necks in work. But their film has finally been finished and
there's an album of soundtrack numbers coming from it. "Actually, the
record company wants me to put out a Sonny & Cher album before the film
track. You know, the record companies are always getting on to you for
material. But I don't know if I can do it for them. It's a lot of
physical labour and I'm not putting out an LP just for the sake of it.
If I feel there's something worthwhile to put out then I'll do it." The
film is likely to be issued in Eng-land and Europe before it gets
American release, and the odds are that Sonny & Cher will come over
here to promote it. It will be any time after November — Sonny expects
to return about the beginning of January. Sonny talked about "Little
Man" which is now a hit in the States after a late re-lease date. "It's a
fun record. It's something different. I feel good about it doing well.
And I was pleased about the British studio that we used to finish it off
in. It's like the studio I use at home. That's an old sort of studio
but really funky. I don't like these new studios very much. "The reason
why we recorded "Sunny" in the first place, for Cher's LP, was because
it expresses a relationship — it's a fine song but I never thought it'd
be out anywhere as a single." NORMAN JOPLING
40z-i- 7, / ;) 6 -6
BOBBY HEBB'S 3,000 songs
ir -0.--u-ly-11-•-■^110-111^•-•-••••-■-■-•-■-■-■-■-■•■•■•-■-•-■-■-■111.-40-■
BOBBY HEBB'S 3,000 SONGS ...
BOBBY
Hebb. Until comparatively re-cently the name was unknown in Britain.
With the coming of "Sunny", a whole lot of people became sud-denly aware
of him. Not least the happy cover-ists who feit the song was an
opportunity too good to miss. The thing is that they all had a hit with
it—although, ad-mittediy, in varying degrees. Nevertheless Mr. Hebb can
be satisfied that for every record sold there's something in it for
him—and the com-poser's cut on a big-seller is not to be sneezed at.
Bobby is 25 years old, and .n the eight years he's been writing, he has
turned out over 3,000 songs--and that's more than one a day. True only
about a third of
r:-
those
passed the publisher's frown, and it wasn't until "Sunny"— a number
written two years ago—that Bobby Hebb earned himself the dual fame and
fortune that is every singing songwriter's dream.
UNCOMMERCIAL
The
reason it took two years to record is simple. No one liked it! Bobby
tramped round the publishers and became a little more despon-dent as
each one shook his head. They all said it had no commercial appeal—all
except one who gave the young guitar-playing writer a chance. "That's
all it needed", he told me, "I had faith in the song and I knew it had
some-thing. I just had to get it out". Bobby was born in Nash-ville,
Tennessee, and as every-one knows, that esteemed city has since become
one of the
world's
capitals as far as record producing is concerned. He says he owes his
interest in music to his parents. Al-though blind they are both trained
guitarists, and by the time he was 12, the young Mr. Hebb was playing
spoons and singing with an outfit called the Smokey Mountain Boys. It
was a band which became popular on the now historic "Grand Ole Opry
Show", and it marked a milestone too. Bobby was the first negro ever to
be booked by the station. Later he was drafted and went to sea by
courtesy of the US Navy, where he played trumpet in the ship's jazz
combo. After a series of seaboard sessions he became land-based again
and began taking guitar lessons with Chet Atkins and Hank Garland. In
1958, as I said, he began writing songs —the rest is history. The big
question now, is, what will bachelor Bobby come up with next? As Bobby
says: "We'll just have to wait and see. . . "
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