Cher’s Strange Connection to Bob Dylan Began With This Chart-Topping Hit 50 Years Ago originally appeared on Parade.
Fifty years ago this week, Sonny and Cher scored their first and only chart-topping single when “I Got You Babe” topped Billboard’s Hot 100. It stayed in the top spot for three weeks before it was knocked out of the pole position by the Beatles’ “Help.”
Strangely enough, the pop duet, written and produced by Sonny Bono for he and this then-wife Cher to sing, was inspired in part by Bob Dylan, who had released the scathing folk song “It Ain’t Me Babe” in 1964. Bono copped the use of the word “babe” and turned Dylan’s downbeat vibe completely around as a love-fueled pop song.
How Many Bob Dylan Songs Did Cher Record?
The success of “I Got You Babe” paved the way for the release of the singer’s first solo single under the name Cher–a cover of Dylan’s “All I Really Want to Do,” which peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, besting a version by the Byrds, whose recording entered the Billboard Hot 100 during the same week.
The song also served as the title track and opening song of Cher’s debut solo album, released in 1965. But the ties to Dylan didn’t stop there. The album also included her covers of “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”
She continued her Dylan fixation the following year by covering “Like a Rolling Stone” on her 1966 album, The Sonny Side of Cher.
What Does Cher Think of Dylan the Performer?
While Cher (or Sonny who was serving as her producer then) were clearly fans of Dylan as a songwriter, decades later the singer was critical of Dylan as a performer.
“If people come to see you, they want you to do things they like. I remember seeing Bob Dylan — I think it was ‘Blood on the Tracks.’ And I went to the first concert and some of the songs I went, ‘What is this?’ He got tired of singing the songs the same way,” she told The New York Times in a 2023 interview. “But people really want to hear their favorite song exactly the same way. It doesn’t make any difference if I’m tired of it. I have to find it inside myself to love it and to love what I’m doing.”
Cher’s Strange Connection to Bob Dylan Began With This Chart-Topping Hit 50 Years Ago first appeared on Parade on Aug 14, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
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