Music / Politics / Film & TV
Sonny Bono
1935–1998 · singer, songwriter, producer, politician
Detroit-born half of Sonny & Cher, who later became mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. congressman; the family left Michigan for California when he was a boy.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Stateline, Nevada
aged 62- Birth name
- Salvatore Phillip Bono
- Detroit years
- 1935–early 1940s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Salvatore Bono was born in Detroit to Sicilian immigrant parents and spent his early childhood in the city before the family moved to California. There he worked his way into the record business as a songwriter and assistant to producer Phil Spector, and in the 1960s formed Sonny & Cher with his future wife. “I Got You Babe” made them stars in 1965, and their variety show kept them on television in the 1970s. He later turned to politics, serving as mayor of Palm Springs and then as a Republican congressman from California until his death in a skiing accident in 1998. The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 carries his name. Michigan remembered its native son in 2011, when he was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
Highlights
- “I Got You Babe” (1965) topped the charts in the US and UK
- Co-hosted The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour on CBS
- Mayor of Palm Springs, California (1988–1992)
- U.S. Representative from California (1995–1998)
- Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame (2011)