Sonny & Cher: Take Life A Little Easier

From the January 30, 1974 episode of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour featuring Sally Struthers and the Jackson 5. Video features the entire opening segment, including a comedy blackout about the Exorcist. Cher was suffering from a cold during the taping of this episode and there are dubs in musical numbers later in the program (including a sequence with Terri Garr, Sally Struthers and Cher) where another singer supplies Cher's vocal. Cher's solo number in this episode, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is an edited version from a 1973 program and other comedy segments may have been culled from earlier tapings. The program aired three weeks before news of their separation hit the press (2/20/74). In spite of the imminent announcement of separation, their on-air chemistry during the comedy monologue is unmistakable and genuine. "Take Life A Little Easier" was released by the young star Rodney Allen Rippy after it appeared in a Jack-in-the-Box commercial. The single, released on Bell Records in the fall of 1973, was produced and arranged by Al Capps, who also arranged Cher's Snuff Garrett releases 1971-1974.