If James Brown is 'The Godfather of Soul' and Aretha 'The Queen of Soul',
then Sam Cooke, often referred to as 'The King of Soul', must be 'The Grandfather of
Soul''. He is widely attributed as being one of the pioneers of soul music
(along with Ray Charles) after crossing over from being a gospel singer
with The Soul Stirrers. Some have even claimed that he was the inventor of
the genre.
He was born Samuel Cook in Clarksdale, MS, on 22 Jan 1931, relocating to
Chicago in 1933, where he began singing at the age of 6 with his siblings
in a group called The Singing Children. Aged 14 he was the lead singer of
The Highway Q.C.'s and in 1950 became lead singer with The Soul Stirrers.
He left the group in 1957 to pursue a solo secular career, adding a 'e' to
his surname apparently to signify a new start. He was replaced in The Soul
Stirrers by Johnnie Taylor.
His career was cut woefully short after being shot dead at the Hacienda
Motel in L.A. He was allegedly shot in self defence by the manager
Bertha Franklin on 11 Dec 1964 aged only 33. Conflicting reports suggest
that Cooke was trying to rape a girl he had taken back to the motel who
had fled the hotel and he was searching for her when the manager shot him.
Others claim that the girl fled the hotel with his clothes trying to rob
him. The court ruled that it was justifiable homicide based on polygraph
tests from the two witnesses (the manager and the girl) and the case was
closed. However, Cooke's family dispute their version of events.
Cooke released a string of hit songs, including "You Send Me", "A Change
Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Wonderful World", "Chain Gang", "Twistin' the
Night Away", "Bring It On Home to Me", and "Good Times". During his
eight-year career, Cooke released around 40 Hot 100 charting singles with
26 of them reaching the Top 40. From 35 R&B charting singles, only two
fell out side the Top 40. He achieved 17 R&B Top 10 singles (14 of
which were Top 5 and 4 of those were #1).
His first pop/soul single was "Lovable" (1956) (a remake of the gospel song "Wonderful") under the alias Dale
Cook as it was seen as a stigma at that time for gospel singers to sing
secular songs. His first hit record "You Send Me" spent three weeks as #1 on the Hot 100 and was in fact originally
intended as a B side to "Summertime". RCA Victor snapped him up in 1960 offering a reported guaranteed $100k
(equivalent to almost $1m in today's money).
Whilst he continued to record for RCA Victor, Cooke set up his own label
SAR in 1961. In 1963 SAR negotiated a deal with RCA Victor to have
exclusive distribution of his singles in return for royalty payments, but
the rights were held by a SAR holding company Tracey Ltd.
Cooke was married twice. He divorced his first wife who later died in a
car accident. His second wife Barbara married Bobby Womack after Cooke's
death but divorced him when she discovered he was having an affair with
Cooke's 17 year old daughter Linda from Cooke's first marriage. Linda later married Bobby's brother Cecil and went on to became the duo
Womack & Womack.
His, now iconic. "A Change Is Gonna Come", was released posthumously only eleven days after his death on 22
Dec 1964 although it had been recorded on 30 Jan 1964 and was performed
live on 'The Tonight Show' in Feb 1964,.Sadly the tape of the live show
was not kept and was then overshadowed by The Beatles appearing on 'The Ed
Sullivan Show' two days later. The song was included on Cooke's album "Ain't That Good News" in March 1964 but was only released as a posthumous B side to "Shake" after his death. Cooke vowed never to perform the song live again. The
song is very highly acclaimed and features in many 'greatest songs of all
time' lists.
I recall watching a biopic, "One Night In Miami", and in a fictional scene in a motel room with Cassius Clay (before changing his name to
Muhammad Ali), Malcom X and Jim Brown, Cooke discussed being ashamed that
he hadn't come up with song comparable to Bob Dylan's "Blowing In The
Wind". He felt that it should be a black, not white, singer producing a
song about civil rights and set about writing one.
Whilst many of the songs sound rather dated now, sit back and listen to
the sound of the birth of soul music. If it were not for pioneers like Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, and
Cooke's good friend Bobby Womack and many others then who knows what the
musical landscape would sound like today, so it is respectful to pay
tribute to them or, more to the point, disrespectful to simply dismiss
them!
Check out "Yeah Man", which was recorded in March 1964 and first appeared on the first album
after his death "Shake" (Jan 1965) with many of the songs recorded in
1960. Arthur Conley's 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music" was based on it, yet
that song was credited to Conley and Otis Redding.
Below is a 93 minute documentary "Lady You Shot Me - The Life & Death of Sam Cooke". which predominantly focuses on how he died.
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1 comment:
Very nice chronicle on this singer who makes us discover the birth of Soul in its modern form, because he was a precursor in this style by opening the way to a whole generation of singers who accompanied our youth in the 60s.
Yves
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