The 20th of February 1972
Official U.K. Singles Chart results from Sunday the 20th to Saturday the 26th of February 1972
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 19th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 20th,
announced on Tuesday the 22nd,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 27th of February 1972.
Sonny & Chér
All I Ever Need Is You
At No.11, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is Sonny & Chér with “All I Ever Need Is You”.
As we fast approach the ten biggest selling U.K. singles…
…we find Sonny & Chér, who had just left the Top 10 after scoring their highest position for this effort, at No.8 last week.
The song, penned by songwriters Jimmy Holiday and Eddie Reeves had been initially recorded the year before by Ray Charles, or “Brother Ray” as he preferred to be called by his peers (although he would be commonly be labelled as “The Genius” by many contemporaries, whether he liked it or not).
Jimmy’s biggest success up to this point…
…had been his co-writing credit, with Randy Myers and Jackie De Shannon (who would herself record the song), “Put A Little Love In Your Heart”.
Eddie had received the ‘Special Citation of Achievement’ award…
…for a song he’d co-written with fellow songwriter, as well as author, actor, and American radio host Alex Harvey, called “Rings”, which had received up to that point over one million radio and television performances in the United States.
The song, when performed by Tompall & The Glaser Brothers, had also gained a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.
Although Ray Charles had been the first…
…to record Jimmy and Eddie’s collaborative songwriting effort, it would however be this current version which would become the most successful.
This year of 1972 would mark 10 years…
…since 27 year old Sonny (Salvatore Bono) first met Chér (Cherilyn Sarkisian) when she was just 16, at a coffee house in LA, which would soon fall into more than just friendship.
It was through Sonny, currently working at the time for the ingenious and innovative record producer Phil Spector, that Chér began her career as a session singer on many of the groundbreaking producer’s hits which included The Ronettes’ ” Be My Baby” and even The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”, but most prominently singing back-up with Sonny on Darlene Love’s “A Fine, Fine Boy”.
The first time the couple endeavored on their own musical journey…
…was when Chér accompanied Sonny who wrote, arranged and produced those releases himself.
Initially, they called themselves Ceasar and Cleo and released a few singles, including “The Letter”, with the cover of the single noting that Chér was calling herself rather alluringly Cher La Piere.
However,
…it would be when they changed their stage name to ‘Sonny and Chér’ that success would begin to really take on a whole new level, when their song “I Got You Babe” went stratospheric.
By the mid 1960’s…
…the loved-up duo began building further on their success, with songs such as “Little Man”…
…and later on…
…”And The Best Goes On”.
Since those heady days,..
…they had decided on a different path to follow, into light entertainment, with their own TV show in the U.S. ‘The Sonny and Chér Comedy Hour’, and it was through the medium of TV that revived their singing career, which had begun to fizzle out at the close of the previous decade.
This latest single first entered the U.K. Chart…
…on the 9th of January at No.42, before it began its gradual climb up, breaking into the Top 20 by the end of that month.
As the year turned to this month of February, so the single would home in on the Top 10, breaking into it on the 6th at No.10, and reaching its highest position of No.8 a week later (last week).
This week, as it begins its journey back down the chart, it will amble slowly, continuing down through March, before finally ending a 12 week run just as it gets into April.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
Sonny & Chér – All I Ever Need Is You (“The Sonny and Chér Show” TV Performance)
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