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Sonny Bono: Specialty Records
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The Bono odyssey began in Detroit, where Salvatore Phillip Bono was born in 1935, the third child of Italian immigrant Santo, a truck driver, and Jean, a beautician, with his ticket apparently punched for obscurity. At Inglewood High School in Los Angeles, where his family moved when he was 7, young Sonny was popular, but more a clown than a student. He dropped out in 1952 and eventually took a job as a butcher's delivery boy. But he had plans. Already writing songs in his spare time, Bono wrangled a delivery route along Sunset Boulevard, where all the independent record labels were located. He told PEOPLE in 1995, "I'd have a bloody apron and stop at record companies and leave songs and get back in my truck and deliver more meat."
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In 1956, eager for a career in the music business, Bono took a delivery job with the L.A. Meat Company, working the route that served Sunset Boulevard. At that time the business establishments on Sunset Boulevard included many independent record labels. Soon he was hired as a songwriter and A&R (artist and repertoire) man by Art Rube's Specialty Records, where he met Sam Cooke and Little Richard, two of the most popular rhythm-and-blues singers of the day. He left Specialty in 1961 and began assisting the influential record producer Phil Spector, for whom he worked as a publicist and wrote songs, including "Needles and Pins," which in 1964 became a hit record for the Searchers.
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Although primarily associated with the '60s folk-rock boom, Bono's career began the previous decade as director of A&R at Specialty Records. He co-wrote She Said Yeah for Larry Williams, later covered by the The Rolling Stones, and ... pursued a recording career with the first of several singles bearing numerous aliases, including Don Christy, Sonny Christy and Ronny Sommers. A fruitful period under the aegis of producer Phil Spector inspired Bono to found the ill- fated Rush label, but he achieved a greater fame when Needles And Pins, a collaboration with Jack Nitzsche, was successfully recorded by Jackie De-Shannon and the Searchers.
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In the early 1960s Bono met a beautiful sixteen-year-old runaway, Cherilyn Sarkasian LaPier, who called herself Cher. They soon began living together (his first marriage having recently ended in divorce) and formed a musical partnership, capitalizing on Cher's powerful singing voice and Sonny's songwriting and production skills. Billed as Caesar and Cleo, they recorded "Baby Don't Go," "The Letter," and "Love Is Strange," without much success.
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Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (February 16, 1935 - January 5, 1998) was an American record producer, singer, actor, and politician, whose career spanned over three decades. In each profession he was underrated by the media, though more widely admired by the public.
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Salvatore Bono aka Bono was born on February 16, 1935 in Detroit. He moved to the Los Angeles area when he was seven years old and attended high school there when he was old enough. His parents always wanted him to be a doctor, but his dream was in show business. Bono would leave songs at record companies in-between his route to and from work.
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