Visions of Sonny Vol. 2: The Love Boat

God knows how many times Sonny guest starred on "The Love Boat," but my favorite episode involved him playing a musician who performed on board the Pacific Princess. It went down like this: as he boards the ship, Sonny strikes up a conversation with a deaf woman (she read lips), asking her to come by his show later that evening in the lounge. They clearly dig each other. That night, she takes her seat at the Captain's table to watch Bono perform, and when he comes on stage he's in full make-up like one of the guys from Kiss! He then proceeds to throw down this pseudo- metal song (the chorus goes "smash it/ bash it/ crumple it up and trash it") as he parades around the stage breaking things at random. The deaf woman runs away in horror and Sonny is crushed. The next day, Sonny shows her that she didn't see the "real" him. After he plays her a ballad on the piano (which she can "hear" with her hand on the lid as she reads his lips), they fall in love.

Sonny and Cher's second album shows a notable dip in quality from the relatively fun (if somewhat dull) debut. They'd hit it big with "I Got You Babe" the year before, and this feels like something they threw together to get some more product on the market. Sonny only wrote three of the original 12 songs, and again the covers will do nothing but remind you how much you like some of the other versions. Gershwin's "Summertime" was done much better two years later by Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company (as well as every jazz singer ever) and "Bring It On Home To Me" must have had the barely- cold Sam Cooke spinning in his grave.

But there's still the strength of Sonny's Spector- esque productions and one great track in "But You're Mine." Also appealing is Sonny's "solo" feature on "Laugh At Me," which has him dedicating the song to Cher and sounding like an all- around adorable goofball with his Dylan- inspired nasal whine. Sonny Bono had the "lovable loser" thing down pat, always talking about his faults and the wonderful woman who could overlook them. It must have worked on his constituents in Palm Springs, too.

-Mark Richard-San