He wasn’t good looking and he could barely sing or play an instrument: neither assets in the world of show biz he was desperate to break into.
By the time Cher met him, she was 16 and he was 28 — which is middle-aged in pop music years, especially in the youth-obsessed 1960s.
Yet Sonny hammered away.
He had, as Cher said in the eulogy, “a vision for the future.”
The unlikely couple became one of the only acts in history to score five songs in the Top 20 at the same time. (The others are Elvis and the Beatles.)
Then, almost overnight, the ride was over. The public soured on their kitschy hippie schtick.
These proto-flower children were reduced to playing hotel lounges, with Sonny in a tux.
They were through.
Then they weren’t…
