I love Sonny and Cher.

But i was privileged to see Tiny Tim's show every day for a week when I was playing at a lakefront festival. I tried to get down to his stage if I had a break during his slot. This was late in his career, but still every tune was epic. By the time I saw him, he had refined I Got You Babe into a show-stopping set closer ... he built up the duet until the two parts were alternating rapid fire. He used this as a set closer several times during the week, and ALWAYS brought the crowd to its feet.

I'm glad there is a video of it, even though it's pretty tame. Here's a short version from the Ed Sullivan show. Try to imagine a 5-10 minute tour-de-force.

RIP Sonny Bono, and RIP Tiny Tim ... both great, and Cher is still great.

Tiny Tim ... I Got You Babe, duet with himself.

…I found myself in a karaoke club in Albemarle street in London.

There, with my team mate John Hale, we sung a powerful duet of this song. All in honour of our year long (successful) legal dispute with a London City financial entity.

I know I was shattered when, after that, me, the boy from Detroit, couldn’t remember the lyrics to “Detroit Rock City”. Even when they were displayed on the monitor screen.

I was in substantial pain the next day.

Thank you for the jog to my memory!

KHJ was only a month out from adopting a new format, switching from MOR to Top 40 (Boss 30, actually) on May 3. They would be number 1 within 90 days, but right then they were the new kids on the block, and Bob Eubanks (yes, The Newlywed Game guy) at KRLA had the Beatles sewed up. KHJ needed somebody.

Sonny and Cher were really “who?” at that point. They had a minor hit with Baby Don’t Go, but they weren’t far removed from performing as Caesar and Cleo. The KHJ powers that be, Ron Jacobs, consultant Bill Drake, and music director Betty Brenneman agreed to put I Got You, Babe on the air, and had ringers (small pun intended) standing by to call the station and say how much they loved the song. It aired, and the ringers couldn’t get through because the listeners really did flood the switchboard. A hit was born, and a symbiotic relationship between artists and radio station was formed. Jacobs later said that Sonny and Cher were “living” at 5515 Melrose in the early days of Boss Radio.

That said, there is no way Jacobs agreed to play the song hourly. KHJ was rigidly formatted, and no station in 1965 would play a song hourly — least of all 93/KHJ. Nobody was playing songs that often until the early 70s, and even then the number one song would air about every 70 minutes, not every hour.

This thread needed a Groundhog Day reference.