The Sonny Side Of – CHER***

Bang Bang/Elusive Butterfly/Where Do You Go/Our Day Will Come/The Girl From Ipanema/Its Not Unusual/Like A Rolling Stone/Time/Come To Your Window/Old Man River/Milord/A Young Girl

The second solo Cher album, The Sonny Side Of Cher, like her first, was produced by her then husband and singing partner, Sonny Bono. Bang Bang was a top three hit in both the US and UK. Cher would have to wait another 23 years for her next British top twenty album. (US:26 UK:11)

"Sonny Side is by-and-large a covers album that contains two songs written by Bono. It is doomed by lack of heart and inability to rise above the formulaic."

"Cher sounds game but uncommitted, the arrangements are over the top, and it just doesn't work. The only track that has any real zest is the Bono written novelty Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), the kind of dramatic song Cher could knock out in her sleep, but also a song with no real heart. That lack of heart and sense of novelty is what dooms the album."

"The Sonny Side Of Cher was the best of her early solo albums. Sonny Bono really knew what kind of a singer he was working with. Sonny utilized the talents of musicians that were top notch, incredible musicians where the rhythm section 'smoked'."

"I don't know how or if any contemporary artist could manage an album like this, male or female. No record company would ever OK an album that had this kind of range of songs. I'm not sure what that says about this album and the current state of music, but I know I will treasure this for what it is."

"From the second LP I particularly liked The Girl From Ipanema, Elusive Butterfly, Where Do You Go, and of course the classic Bang Bang which was Cher's biggest solo hit of the 60s."

"In my opinion, Cher's best work was that which she did with Sonny in the sixties."