"Laugh At Me" was a one-hit wonder for Sonny Bono as a solo artist under the name Sonny. The song was released in 1965 and became a #1 hit for Bono in Canada on the RPM national singles chart (to be knocked off the top spot the following week his own Sonny & Cher single, "Baby Don't Go"), and a top-40 hit in the U.S., peaking at #10. It also reached the top 10 in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 9. The song was written and produced by Bono after he was refused entrance to Montoni's Restaurant in Hollywood because of his "hippie attire." The song begins with Sonny saying, “I never thought I'd cut a record by myself but I got somethin' I wanna say. I want to say it for Cher and I hope I say it for a lot of people”.
Although Bono would have a great deal of success with Sonny & Cher with his then-wife Cher, Bono had very little success as a solo artist with the exception of "Laugh At Me". Bono only released one other single as a solo artist, "The Revolution Kind"; however, his second single only scratched the top 100 before disappearing from the charts (reaching #70).
"Laugh At Me" has been released on the Sonny & Cher compact disc The Beat Goes On, as well as the Rhino handmade release of Sonny Bono's only solo album, Inner Views. A live version was also released on the Sonny & Cher collection, All I Ever Need: Kapp/MCA Anthology, with Sonny beginning the quip, "I'll do a medley of my hit."
"Laugh At Me" was covered by Mott the Hoople in 1969 for their first LP, Mott The Hoople, and later by Ian Hunter on Welcome to the Club.
Famous quotes containing the words laugh at and/or laugh:
“We laugh at him who steps out of his room at the very moment when the sun steps out, and says: “I will the sun to rise”; and at him who cannot stop the wheel, and says: “I will it to roll”; and at him who is taken down in a wrestling match, and says: “I lie here, but I will that I lie here!” And yet, all laughter aside, do we ever do anything other than one of these three things when we use the expression, “I will”?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I can’t make head or tail of Life. Love is a fine thing, Art is a fine thing, Nature is a fine thing; but the average human mind and spirit are confusing beyond measure. Sometimes I think that all our learning is the little learning of the maxim. To laugh at a Roman awe-stricken in a sacred grove is to laugh at something today.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)