The 78-year-old singer has re-recorded the track, slightly altering the song’s title to I Got U Babe, to promote UKTV’s U streaming platform. The advert also sees her superimposed into scenes from a number of TV series, as she appears in a life jacket in comedy drama series, Annika, and presents a cake in the shape of a U to MasterChef Australia judges. The song was a UK and US number one for Sonny and Cher in 1965, and Cher later recorded it with animated TV characters Beavis and Butt-Head in 1993, reaching number 35 in the UK Singles Chart.
It has been covered numerous times, with UB40 and Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde also having a UK number one with the track. Sir Mick Jagger also comically mimed the track with Rolling Stones impresario Andrew Loog Oldham on ITV’s Ready Steady Go music show during the 1960s. The song rocketed Cher to fame as her first number one, before she went on to have three more UK number one singles and two UK number one albums, after her split from Sonny Bono in 1975.
Speaking about her appearance in the advert, UKTV creative director, Scott Russell said: “We wanted to create an ambitious advert to launch U to highlight the variety of quality programming and to stand out in a hugely competitive landscape. “It had to be joyful, have content at its heart, and to tell the story of whatever you love, we’ve got U. “What’s more, it needed to be memorable and have a surprise factor that was not only authentic but connected with curr.