Died On This Date (January 5, 1998) Sonny Bono / Sonny & Cher
themusicsover Salvatore “Sonny” Bono
February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998
Sonny Bono was a successful singer, songwriter, producer and actor who came to the world’s attention in the mid ’60s when he partnered with his wife, Cher to form the singing and comic duo, Sonny & Cher. One of Bono’s first jobs in the music business was assisting producer, Phil Spector. He was also writing songs, penning such pop classics as “Things You Do To Me” (Sam Cooke), “Needle and Pins” (the Searchers, Jackie DeShannon, Tom Petty), and of course, “I Got You Babe,” “The Beat Goes On” and many more made famous by Sonny & Cher. In 1971, CBS debuted The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour which was a top 20 hit for its four-season run. Sonny and Cher split both professionally and personally in the mid ’70s, afterwhich Bono periodically made television guest star appearances into the ’90s. In 1988, Bono was elected mayor of Palm Springs, California, an office he held until 1992. By all accounts he did a great job and was very popular in the position. On January 5, 1998, Sonny Bono died of injuries he sustained from accidentally skiing into a tree at near Lake Tahoe.
What You Should Own
Dobie Gray was an American soul (and later, country) singer and songwriter who, over a career that started in 1960, released hits like “The In Crowd” and “Drift Away,” which sold over a million copies and remains a staple on radio. Born into a family of Texas sharecroppers, Gray was exposed to gospel music at an early age thanks to an uncle who was a Baptist minister. By the early ’60s, he was living in Los Angeles where he met 
