History

Upon recording and releasing the song, "I Got You Babe" became the duo's biggest single, their signature song, and a defining recording of the early hippie countercultural movement. In August of 1965, the single reached the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for three weeks, and reached number-one in the United Kingdom for one week.

The song has been frequently covered and featured in film and television, including Sonny and Cher's own The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. "I Got You Babe" made a bit of a comeback when it was heavily featured as Bill Murray's wake-up call in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. Upon this re-release, the single re-charted in the UK, reaching number sixty-six.

The song was later covered by Cher in a music video that featured Beavis and Butthead as a rapt audience to Cher's performance. In the video, the idiot pair refer to her former husband Bono as a dork and a wuss, to which Cher agrees.

Sonny and Cher last performed the song together during an impromptu reunion on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman in 1987.

The song was placed at #444 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of all time.

Cher performed the song with R.E.M. on February 14 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. It was her first performance of the song without Sonny.

Influences on popular culture

• 1968 Etta James on the album Tell Mama
• 1968 Tiny Tim on the album God Bless Tiny Tim
• 1973 David Bowie with Marianne Faithfull on The Midnight Special, released on the bootleg Dollars In Drag: The 1980 Floor Show
• 1975 The Dictators on their album The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!
• 1982 The Ramones' Joey Ramone and Holly and the Italians' Holly Beth Vincent performed the duet.
• 1985 UB40 (with Chrissie Hynde) on the album Baggariddim ; also appears on The Pretenders 1987 album The Singles. It reached number one on the UK charts in August 1985.
• 1991 The Cynics released their tribute to Bono titled 'Bonograph' and the Get Hip single "I Got You Babe b/w Bang Bang". These feature their cover of the song; the music video includes photographs paying respects to Sonny and Cher.
• 1993 Cher (with Beavis & Butt-Head) on the album The Beavis & Butt-Head Experience
• 1998 Merril Bainbridge feat. Shaggy on the album Woop Woop Soundtrack and Between the Days
• 2005 Capitol Steps on the album "Four More Years in the Bush Leagues", the parody "Sunni and Cher" being based on the song
• 2006 Bradley Joseph, an instrumental arrangement on the album Piano Love Songs

Movies and Television

• In an episode of the fifth season, An Illegitimate Concern, of The Golden Girls, Sophia and Dorothy dress up as Sonny and Cher, respectively, for a mother-daughter talent show. They practice singing "I Got You Babe" while Rose accompanies them on the piano. The episode aired February 12, 1990.
• In an episode of Full House, Uncle Jesse has Michelle sing along to "I Got You Babe" as they strum on their respective guitars.
• In Bill Murray's Groundhog Day, the song serves as Murray's wake-up song.
• Britney Spears appeared on British comedian Frank Skinner's show and performed the duet with the host .
• Another episode of The Frank Skinner Show' featured the incongruous pairing of Ron Jeremy and Mo Mowlam.
• In The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour, then-married Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson close their variety show special (that was already very a la Sonny and Cher) by singing the duet.
• The Rolling Stones don costumes and lip sync to the original version of the song.
• On the New York City- and internet-based television show that regular features local songwriters and musicians, Duets with Deni, Deni Bonet and Robyn Hitchcock sing the song from Deni's apartment.
• In an episode of Eli Stone entitled "I Want Your Sex", in a vision of the title character, Taylor Wethersby (Natasha Henstridge) and Matt Dowd (Sam Jaeger) sing it. After he sees it, Taylor reveals that she actually hates that song. It is later revealed that he saw them singing that song only because Matt's cat was named Sonny Bono.
• In Delta Farce (2008), Sgt Kilgore (Keith David) is forced to sing "I Got You Babe" with villain Carlos Santana's gay nephew, Ruben (Joe Nunez).
• In an episode of Boy Meets World entitled "Cutting The Cord", when Shawn sings the song with his new girlfriend in a karoake contest, but then leaves because he is still in love with his old girlfriend.

Games

• It is featured on the video game Karaoke Revolution Volume 3.

Charts

Sonny & Cher

Cher and Beavis and Butt-head

UB40 & Chrissie Hynde

Achievements

Sonny & Cher

UB40 & Chrissie Hynde

References