Songfacts®:

• This was released as the B-side of Lind's 1966 hit "Elusive Butterfly." In an interview with the Forgotten Hits newsletter, Lind wrote: "Of my 200-plus covers, "Cheryl" is my second-most recorded song. And it's interesting that you'd ask me about this one because it didn't start out as a B-side; it was actually intended to be the hit. When I first signed with World Pacific in '65, they were looking for a folk-rocker - a singer/songwriter who would be their own private Dylan. I came along at the right time. They scooped me up and kicked out all the jams,putting me with Jack Nitzsche who was already a legend from his work with Phil Spector. He cut four tunes with me: "Cheryl's Goin' Home," "You Should Have Seen It," "Elusive Butterfly" and one more. (Can't recall the last one. Probably "Truly Julie's Blues.")
  
  When they were all in the can, the record company executives asked me which song I thought we should release as the single. I told them, "Anything but 'Elusive Butterfly.'" The execs AND Jack agreed. There was just nothing like it on the charts at the time and it didn't smell like a hit to any of us. So Jack picked "Cheryl" to go on the A side and the suits decided to put "Butterfly" on the B-side to avoid split airplay. Ha! The single came out in early '66 and instantly took the sad, toiletward plunge into obscurity. The record got very little play and no attention at all - except from a DJ in Florida who, for God only knows what reason, turned it over and started playing the "B" side. "Butterfly" rose to #5 and "Cheryl" became a forgotten entity - I thought.
  
  But months later, a kick-ass group called the Blues Project featured it on their fantastic debut album, which gave the tune some cult status. Within months, Sonny and Cher, the Cascades, Noel Harrison and The Hondells had all cut the song. What's more,a group called the Rokes released an Italian language version and sold a million copies in Italy. Their title is: "Che Colpa Abbiamo Noi." Over the years scads of artists have recorded it. Not sure how many. Every time I turn around, I'm hearing a new one. But the most bizarre and original version so far is by a Brit punk rocker named Jon Otway. I love his rendition for its shameless drama and over-the-top intensity. Way, way different from my own version. I wrote the song circa 1964 in the middle of the night in a scuzzy little San Francisco hotel room after waking from a particularly terrifying dream of abandonment."
• This song was covered by Adam Faith in the UK to become his last British hit, peaking at #46.