Sam Cooke - A Profile

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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