Sweet Soul Sunday Celebrating the 2024 Birthday of the First Soul Brother, the Legendary Sam Cooke
by Robert Wilkinson
Because his music is so beautiful, we begin our show early! Today would have been the 93rd birthday of one of the pioneers and creators of “Soul music,” a man with one of the smoothest voices ever to grace the airwaves, Mister Sam Cooke.
The legendary Sam Cooke (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was a gospel singer who blazed the trail for a thousand other Soul music performers. He combined gospel, pop, and rock and roll to create the genre we now call “soul music.” From Wikipedia:
Cooke had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964, and a further three after his death. Major hits like “You Send Me,” “A Change is Gonna Come,” “Cupid,” “Chain Gang,” “Wonderful World,” and “Twistin’ the Night Away” are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.On December 11, 1964, Cooke was fatally shot by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, CA, at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and that the manager had killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide. Since that time, the circumstances of his death have been widely questioned.
I loved his music when I was young, and his death hit me hard. Between 1963 and 1970 a whole lot of famous people, powerful people who actually gave a damn, got shot in the US for all kinds of reasons. That affected us more than America has been willing to admit.
For your enjoyment, the silken voice of Mister Sam Cooke! I found a fair amount of performance footage, no small feat given he was big before there was widespread videotaping of music acts.
Tonight we begin with a song that reflects on a certain mood around these parts. Get ready to dance on the beach of an endless sea because it’s the only thing to do when reality phase shifts.
Not to get too heavy, I chose this song because it’s deep and maybe stirs your Soul. Sway with the music to this obscure gem which hit #11. For soothing your Soul, here’s the original 1964 studio version by Sam Cooke of the haunting “Good Times”
From their Out of Our Heads album, the Rolling Stones version of “Good Times”
From October 1958, Sam Cooke on The Arthur Murray Dance Party singing “Mary Lou”
He wrote his first #1 hit in 1957. From 1959, here’s Dick Clark presenting Sam lip synching the immortal "You Send Me" with this additional treat, Dick Clark Interviews Sam Cooke.
For a further trip down the rabbit hole, here’s the entire Dick Clark segment from March 1959 featuring Sam Cooke followed by Frankie Avalon lip-synching his first hit, “Venus.” As an old television programmer, I consider this “whiplash” programming, since it takes us from the sublime to the absurd, complete with screaming prepubescent girls!! For your amusement, Sam Cooke and Frankie Avalon
From 1963, Sam Cooke in a live tv performance of a tune he wrote which made it to #1 R&B, #9 Hot 100. “Twistin’ the Night Away”
Here’s Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson in a live video performance of another one he wrote which went to #2 R&B, “Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha”
For a sense of just how kinetic this pioneer Soul music lightning rod was, check these audio-only performances of Sam at the Harlem Square Club in 1963! We begin with “Cupid,” “It’s All Right,” and “Sentimental Reasons” and follow it with “Don’t Fight It,” “Feel It,” and “Chain Gang”
We’ll close this “Harlem Night” with two of his standards, “Bring It On Home To Me” and his HUGE twist hit, “Twisting the Night Away”
From Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, a 1964 live video of Sam offering up a #11 hit he wrote, “Ain’t That Good News”
From 1964, Sam on The Mike Douglas Show in a live video performance of “Basin Street Blues” along with the Sam Cooke interview on The Mike Douglas Show
From another time when we marched and sang and protested and came together for a world without war, Sam in a live performance of Bob Dylan’s timeless tune “Blowin’ In The Wind”
In 1964 he played the Copa and we got an amazing album of the man at his peak! From July 1964, he’s 43 minutes of Sam Cooke at the Copa – live at the Copacabana in NYC – July 1964
From that show, here’s his soulful performance of the civil rights standard, “If I Had A Hammer”
From here on, it’s the original studio recordings! Between the ones I've already given you, and some to come, these are among the most memorable tunes ever recorded! He wrote the ones with (SC).
The original studio version of this song made it to #2 on the charts! Here’s Sam singing "Chain Gang" (SC)
The tune Otis made into a hit a few years later done by the original! Sam Cooke doing "Shake" (SC)
"Cupid" (SC)
"Sad Mood" (SC)
“It’s All Right” (SC)
“Only Sixteen” (SC)
"Having A Party" (SC)
I found it again! This is a great 1 minute clip of Sam and the Great Muhammad Ali live doing an a cappella duet of “The Gang’s All Here”
We’ll close this tribute with the original studio version of a song he wrote, one of the greatest songs to come out of the American Civil Rights Movement, which went to #9 on the R&B charts. “A Change Is Gonna Come.” If you don't hear one other song today, this one is for the ages!
His amazing debut album from 1957-58 titled Songs by Sam Cooke has disappeared this year. I’ll try again next year.
Last year I had a 4 ½ hour compilation of all his tunes called Sam Cooke – 100 Hits – The Definitive Anthology, but it’s gone this year. Instead, here’s a collection of his tunes offered up by this voice for the ages! For your enjoyment, Sam Cooke’s Greatest Hits
This year I also found this clip of 327 songs by Sam! (I must admit I haven’t heard of a bunch of them, so have fun!) Sam Cooke’s Greatest Hits 2017
For our encore, from the mid-50s before he went solo, Sam fronted the legendary Soul Stirrers! It begins with the first tune and autoloads all the others, so enjoy this trip into a serious gospel groove! Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers
For soothing your Soul closing out this show, we’ll go back to the tune that brought us here. Come on along and groove to lettin’ the good times roll. “Good Times”
Here’s an excellent 52 minute documentary on Sam Cooke called Crossing Over – The Sam Cooke Documentary
The documentary Sam Cooke – Legend (The Life, the Legend, the Legacy) has totally disappeared. So in its place, I found this hour and 1 minute documentary of the Man. He really was a pioneer in writing, production, and taking control of his career, and blazed the trail for a lot of those who followed in his footsteps!
Sam Cooke – Soul Deep Documentary
Here’s an hour and 14 murder mystery documentary about Sam’s death! Real Stories - The Killing of Sam Cooke: Who Murdered Soul?
Happy RIP birthday, Sam. It seems LA was a tough gig back in the 60s, especially if you were successful in shew biz, since if you crossed the wrong people (in your case idiot mobsters) you wound up very dead very fast. It would seem your death wasn’t accidental, but it’s now ancient history.
You had one of the sweetest voices in the world, and gave us great tunes while you were alive. We can only wish you had been around longer. RIP, number one Soul brother.
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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