--- title: Cher Tells ‘I Got You Babe’ Origin Story on James Corden description: Bono would stay up late tinkering with the piano and writing songs and would wake Cher up whenever he needed her to sing a lyric or two. canonical: https://time.com/4540404/cher-i-got-you-babe/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-21T15:44:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:52.265Z og:title: Cher Didn't Think ‘I Got You Babe’ Would Be a Hit og:description: Turns out Cher is a pretty bad judge of what makes a hit song og:url: https://time.com/4540404/cher-i-got-you-babe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7de8723f62bfd7ce/6988ab0c196cf4dd3103da8f/cher1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: cher og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cher Didn't Think ‘I Got You Babe’ Would Be a Hit twitter:description: Turns out Cher is a pretty bad judge of what makes a hit song twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7de8723f62bfd7ce/6988ab0c196cf4dd3103da8f/cher1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cher Didn’t Think ‘I Got You Babe’ Would Be a Hit by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 21, 2016 3:44 PM UTC  CBS by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 21, 2016 3:44 PM UTC Cher may not be [much of a Cher fan](http://time.com/4537096/cher-interview-on-aging/?iid=sr-link1), but [James Corden](http://time.com/4261606/james-corden-carpool-karaoke-special/?iid=sr-link1) has enough enthusiasm for both of them. When the music legend stopped by [_The Late Late Show_](http://time.com/4538394/watch-tom-cruise-reenact-risky-business-top-gun-and-jerry-maguire-with-james-corden/?iid=sr-link4) on Thursday night, Corden and [guest Gal Gadot](http://time.com/4538348/gal-gadot-on-kimmel/?iid=sr-link1) were thrilled to be in Cher’s presence. While Gadot mostly kept her _Wonder Woman_ cool, Corden started to freak out almost immediately, gushing as he asked about how Cher and Sonny Bono came up with their hit song, “I Got You Babe.” Cher gamely explained that she and Bono bought a piano for $82 with “only a few keys broken.” Bono would stay up late tinkering with the piano and writing songs and would wake Cher up whenever he needed her to sing a lyric or two. When it came to hearing his new song, “I Got You Babe,” though, [Cher](http://time.com/4341151/cher-best-looks/?iid=sr-link2) just rolled her eyes and went right back to bed. “It sounded like _not_ a hit song,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4540404/cher-i-got-you-babe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4540404/cher-i-got-you-babe/"},"headline":"Cher Didn’t Think ‘I Got You Babe’ Would Be a Hit","datePublished":"2016-10-21T15:44:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:52.265Z","description":"“It sounded like not a hit song”","url":"https://time.com/4540404/cher-i-got-you-babe/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Music","james corden","cher"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7de8723f62bfd7ce/6988ab0c196cf4dd3103da8f/cher1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7de8723f62bfd7ce/6988ab0c196cf4dd3103da8f/cher1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"cher","caption":"","creditText":"CBS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4540404/cher-i-got-you-babe/","name":"Cher Didn’t Think ‘I Got You Babe’ Would Be a Hit"}}]}] ```