The Beat Goes On: The Best of Sonny & Cher

Performer: Sonny & Cher
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Producer: Sonny Bono Compilation producer: Bill Inglot. Includes liner notes by Ken Barnes. Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch (1991 DigiPrep). A nicely thorough collection of Sonny and Cher's classic Atco era, THE BEAT GOES ON covers a lot of ground for a single-disc anthology. Besides the duo's hits, it includes a handful of Sonny's solo singles, most notably the 45 edit of "My Best Friend's Girl is Out of Sight," from his staggeringly weird 1967 solo album INNER VIEWS. None of Cher's solo material is here, which lends a slightly lopsided view of the duo's history. A handful of their songs, the Spectoresque debut "Baby Don't Go" and their breakout "I Got You Babe" represent the peak of a certain style of commercial folk-pop that was one of the defining sounds of the 1960s. However, it's the lesser-known tracks, like the full-on Phil Spector tribute "It's the Little Things," the waltz-time "A Beautiful Story," and a very odd spoken-word b-side called "Hello," that are the most interesting.

Q (7/93, p.112) - 3 Stars - Good - "...Few acts define the mid-'60s as perfectly as Sonny & Cher. Trading shamelessly on a store-bought hippy image, they projected themselves as pop's first Happy Couple...for a short while they were the stuff of true romance and their's was a better soundtrack than most..."

Although touted as the misunderstood young lovers of 1965 folk-rock, Sonny Bono and Cher were not all their image suggested. Bono had a history in the music business stretching back to the late '50s, and became romantically attached to Cher, who was working as a backing singer. The duo found fame with 1965's transatlantic number 1, "I Got You Babe," and followed it up, as both a duo and soloists, with a formidable passel of hit singles. In the '70s they hosted their own television variety show, and Cher enjoyed a phenomenally successful acting and singing career, while Bono became a successful politician before dying in a skiing accident in 1998.

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