{"id":570,"date":"2020-05-21T14:48:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T14:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/a-great-list-of-sonnys-achievements\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T08:12:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T15:12:59","slug":"a-great-list-of-sonnys-achievements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2020\/05\/a-great-list-of-sonnys-achievements\/","title":{"rendered":"A Great List of Sonny’s Achievements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mayor\"<\/a>I found this article while looking for stories about Sonny Bono and Little Richard (when that icon of rock and roll died last week):  You Don't Know Sonny<\/a>, a blog post from 2018 by the record collecting\/radio DJ married couple Laura and Casey. The site is called Runout Numbers and this was a great piece summing up the achievements of Sonny. To my surprise the article even mentions Cher Scholar!<\/p>\n

Here are some highlights:<\/p>\n

\u201cSonny Bono died 20 years ago today [this must have been January of 2018]. If you\u2019re a rock and roll fan, you should care. I f you love a good American bootstraps story, you should care. And if you\u2019re looking for an inspirational story of persistence,  he\u2019s your guy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The post describes how Sonny never let people\u2019s opinions stop him (or judgement about his lack of qualifications): \u201cthe one thing that never got in his way was whether or not people thought he should be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

 This blog also calls out Sonny\u2019s work with Sam Cooke, Larry Williams and Little Richard, all on Specialty Records.<\/p>\n

\"Sonny-harold\"<\/a>And she mentions Sonny\u2019s monetary and personal support of Dr. John\u2019s first album Gris-Gris, his collaboration with Harold Battiste and Jack Nitzsche, Sonny's association with Phil Spector and why Spector eventually fired him, the connection between Sonny & Cher and the Rolling Stones, the many covers of Sonny songs (The Rolling Stones, The Searchers, The Ramones, Stevie Nicks, Jackie DeShannon\u2026to that I\u2019ll add David Bowie and Marianne Faithful, Stevie Wonder, Paul Weller, Dalida\u2026.).<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of Sonny\u2019s main contemporaries\u2026from former bosses, collaborators, and artists he worked with are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame\u2014even his godson Anthony Keidis. Phil Spector, Darlene Love, The Ronettes, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Leon Russel, Art Rupe, Dr. John, Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Hal Blaine\u2014the list goes on. I\u2019m not arguing that Sonny belongs in the Hall of Fame anytime soon [I am], but he was working directly alongside titans of popular music and still isn\u2019t seen as any time of a figure in rock history.\u201d<\/p>\n

To her list I would add Atlantic Records and Atco head Ahment Ertegun.<\/p>\n

<\/a> \"Ahmet-ertegun\"<\/a>
By the way, Laura points out that \u201cSonny remains the only member of congress to ever have a #1 hit single.\u201d She says, \u201c\"Sonny-phil\"<\/a>He wasn\u2019t only almost a hit songwriter, or almost a Congressman, but somehow he\u2019s seen as only almost an important figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

I also appreciate how this article also acknowledges Sonny\u2019s shady deals and unpopular political decisions.<\/p>\n

To speak to the comment about my link in the article, I do agree Sonny did a solid performance in the movie Escape to Athena<\/em>. In fact, Cher Zine 3<\/a> has an article called "Going Solo with Sonny" where I did reviews of all his movies I could locate at the time:<\/p>\n