Posted in: News, Trivia Q & A | 1 Comment | Posted on January 28, 2022 by Mary Anne

Q.  What famous singing couple started out as back up singers for many Phil Spector produced hit songs?

A.  Sonny & Cher

Cherilyn Sarkisian first met Salvatore Bono in a Los Angeles coffee shop in November 1962, when she was sixteen. The older Bono (11 years her senior) was working for record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. The two became best friends, eventual lovers, and were supposedly married in 1964, but Bono says in his autobiography that it was not an official marriage (they actually were legally wed after Chastity was born). Through Bono, Cher started as a session singer, and sang backup on several of Spector’s classic recordings, including “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” by The Righteous Brothers and Darlene Love’s “A Fine, Fine Boy”. In the composition by Darlene Love, the listener can clearly hear Cher and Sonny close to the mic (along with Love, who recorded her own backing vocals)