I Got You Babe – Sonny & Cher

I Got You Babe – Sonny & Cher

Thought I'd Cher this one. You may get the very unsubtle reference to the movie 1993 'Groundhog Day' if you have ever seen it. Basically the main character, played by Bill Murray has to repeat the same day over and over again until he finally sees the error of his ways. Each morning he wakes up his clock radio beside the bed is belting out this same song. 

I hear this song a lot in my head since I've been waking up each morning during the pandemic lock-down. Probably something Sonny Bono couldn't have contemplated when he wrote it, recording it with his then wife the iconic Cher. Each day at the moment has a big shadow of yesterday hanging over it, just wondering if today is the day I'm going to get up and find the worlds back to normal.

But never-mind the strange association this is a classy song, well constructed and performed. You can tell the joy between the couple, even in their voices, that they can face whatever the world throws at them as long as they have each other to see them through. The instruments used are quite orchestral compared to other 1960's hits, it sounds like a harpsichord at the start. I guess it's an oboe that makes the chirpy bird call in the middle. It's a very interesting unusual sounding tune.

 Apparently Sonny wrote the song late one night, woke Cher, she got up and sang the song through, declared she hated it and went back to bed. It went on to become their anthem and a huge hit. The words are simple but expressive, it was written to show the opposite point of view to Bob Dylan's 'It Ain't Me Babe.'

Before this version was used in the movie, my generation knew this as a hit by Reggae band UB40 and Chrissie Hynde, of The Pretenders fame, from 1985.

Favourite lyric : they say our love won't pay the rent before it's earned, our money's all been spent