May 10, SUNNY SONG OF THE DAY Sonny Bono

Sonny Bono "Sunny" on January 1998 Nightline 1:25 - 1:33 Sonny sings Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" (Paul Brownstein Productions) 

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.

Cher's Version
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

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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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