From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Sat Feb 16, 2002 1:53 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Sonny Bono SONNY BONO Born Salvatore Bono, 16 February 1935, Detroit, Michigan Died 5 January 1998, near Lake Tahoe, California In 1957 Bono went to work for Specialty Records as an A&R man and producer. He co-wrote "High School Dance", "You Bug Me Baby" and "She Said Yeah" for Larry Williams and also recorded a single of his own under the name Don Christy. His best rock 'n' roll composition is undoubtedly "Koko Joe", recorded by Don and Dewey in 1958. In the early sixties he did session work for Phil Spector, but he achieved greater fame when "Needles And Pins", a collaboration with Jack Nitzsche, was succesfully recorded by Jackie DeShannon and the Searchers. In 1963 Bono met, and married, Cherilyn Sarkisian, better known as Cher. As Sonny and Cher they scored 20 Billboard hits (1965-1973), their first hit, "I Got You Babe" (written, arranged and produced by Bono), peaking at # 1 in Billboard. They were divorced in 1974. A registered Republican, Bono went into politics in the eighties. He was mayor of Palm Springs from 1988-1992, and elected to the US Congress in 1994. He died in a skiing accident. Autobiography: Sonny Bono, And the Beat Goes On (Pocket Books, 1991).