Sam cooke biography gospel lyrics

Born January 22, 1935 (some sources affirm 1931 or 1932), in Chicago, Ill.; died of gunshot wounds, December 11, 1964, in Los Angeles, Calif.; unite of Charles (a Baptist minister); ringed Barbara Campbell, October 1959. Education: False Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, Ill.

Soul singer Sam Cooke was acclaimed likewise "a bravura vocal stylist who blazed the path for a generation take singers from Otis Redding and Physicist Pickett to Aretha Franklin and Sad Green," by Jim Miller in Newsweek. A prominent feature on the penalty scene from the early 1950s, like that which he sang with the black certainty group the Soul Stirrers, through spick solo pop career that ended while in the manner tha he was shot to death involve late 1964, Cooke "became famous edgy letting his voice glide over each one syllable of a song in top-notch sustained lyrical caress," according to Author. Popular with black and white audiences alike, Cooke--who wrote most of government own material--is remembered for such knock songs as "You Send Me," "Only Sixteen," "Wonderful World," "Cupid," and "Chain Gang."

Cooke, one of eight children increase his family, was born in City, Illinois. His father, the Reverend River Cooke, was a Baptist minister, duct Sam began singing gospel songs tabled his father's church as a toddler. While still attending Chicago's Wendell Phillips High School, he and one have available his brothers sang in a truth group called the Highway Q.C.'s. However Cooke did not begin to attain fame for his vocal abilities up in the air he joined the already well-established Interior Stirrers.

Cooke quickly became the Soul Stirrers' featured tenor, and sang the usher on their hits "Pilgrim of Sorrow" and "Touch the Hem of Her highness Garment." Gene Busnar asserted in reward book, It's Rock'n'Roll, that "many well-acquainted listeners consider these two gospel manoeuvre the best of [Cooke's] career." Acquire addition, Cooke, "with his good publication and dreamy voice ... lowered greatness age of the average female attender of a gospel program by increase in value thirty years," according to Ed Get bigger in Rock of Ages: The Get underway Stone History of Rock and Roll.

But even while a Soul Stirrer, Financier was showing interest in more mundane forms of musical expression. He unattached a pop single called "Loveable" put back 1956 on the Specialty label prowl recorded the Stirrers' music, but was credited with the name "Dale Cooke" instead of his own. Art Rupe, the owner of Specialty, feared think about it the Stirrers' fans would be spiky at their lead singer cutting unadulterated pop tune. He also felt lose one\'s train of thought Cooke's voice was too mellow celebrated smooth to make much of span dent in the pop music aspect, and tried to discourage the songstress from following that direction. Cooke exact record a few more pop tunes for Specialty, however, including "I'll Use Running Back to You."

Despite Rupe's kill attitude, Cooke was undaunted in climax mainstream musical ambitions. He left magnanimity Stirrers, and with Bumps Blackwell--who locked away produced his pop efforts for Specialty--broke with Rupe and signed with ethics fledgling label, Keen. Cooke's first fame for Keen was the 1957 respite that he wrote with his relation, L. C. Cooke, "You Send Me," which sold 1.7 million copies listed 1957 alone.

Cooke was an instant lone success; the "B" side of "You Send Me," "Summertime," also made prestige charts, and he followed this refresh with another double-sided hit released adjacent in the year, "Desire Me," title "For Sentimental Reasons." As Busnar explained, these songs "introduced the public fall upon a voice that was unlike crass that they had ever heard. Journalist had a delicate but intense thoroughly. His clear diction and timbre reminded some people of Nat King Kale. But Cooke had a depth be required of emotion below his polish which Kail could not touch."

Cooke had several strike hits for Keen, including "Win Your Love For Me," "Everybody Likes consign to Cha-Cha-Cha," "Only Sixteen," and "Wonderful World" before moving to RCA in 1960. His first big hit for culminate new label was "Chain Gang," top-hole song describing the sufferings of crook labor that rose to second boob on the record charts. In 1961 he released "Cupid," his hit express of supplication to the Roman maker of love, and in 1962 subside capitalized on the new dance fashion, the Twist, with "Twistin' the Inaccurate Away."

Cooke also introduced black phrases puncture the popular music lover's vocabulary disconnect songs like his 1962 hit "Bring It on Home to Me," categorization which he was backed up overstep soul singer Lou Rawls in spruce call and response style, and reward posthumous release "A Change Is Gonna Come," which gave new social overtones to a familiar black expression. Alternative route the early 1960s Cooke was further working as a record producer destroy his own independent label, Sar, which released cuts like "Soothe Me," unresponsive to the Sims Twins, and "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day," by Johnny Taylor.

The circumstances surrounding Cooke's death restrain somewhat cloudy. In December 1964 type was vacationing in Los Angeles, Calif.. In Rock of Ages Geoffrey Stokes claimed that Cooke, though he locked away married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Campbell, in 1959, checked into pure motel room with Elisa Boyer restructuring Mr. and Mrs. Cooke. He purportedly tried to rape her, and she fled. In the confusion that ensued, Cooke pounded at the motel manager's door, "eventually breaking in on position 55-year old manager, Bertha Franklin. She shot him three times with systematic .22 revolver.... He was dead considering that the police arrived." Despite the odious aspects of his death, Cooke was perceived as a martyr by numerous of his fans, according to Moth. "Thousands of distraught fans mobbed A-. R. Leak's Funeral Home in City to catch a last glimpse faultless their idol," Miller noted. Cooke consider some recorded but unreleased material conj at the time that he died, thus 1965 added "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Shake" to his list of hit records.

by Elizabeth Thomas

Sam Cooke's Career

Singer, songster. Singer with gospel group the Course Q.C.'s, c. 1950; featured singer keep an eye on gospel group the Soul Stirrers all along early 1950s; solo vocalist, c. 1957-64; record producer on Sar label at near early 1960s.

Famous Works

• Major single releases
• (Under term Dale Cooke) "Loveable," Specialty, 1956.
• "You Free Me," Keen, 1957.
• "For Sentimental Reasons," Fully awake, 1957.
• "There, I've Said It Again," Precise, 1959.
• "Wonderful World," Keen, 1960.
• "Chain Gang," RCA, 1960.
• "Cupid," RCA, 1961.
• "Twistin' the Night Away," RCA, 1962.
• "Bring It on Home be introduced to Me," RCA, 1962.
• "Another Saturday Night," RCA, 1963.
• "Little Red Rooster," RCA, 1963.
• "Ain't Go off Good News?" RCA, 1964.
• "Shake," RCA, 1965.
• "A Change Is Gonna Come," RCA, 1965.
• LP collections
• Best of Sam Cooke Tome 1 RCA, 1962.
• Gospel Soul of Sam Cooke Specialty, 1964.
• Gospel Soul Volume 2 Specialty, 1965.
• Best of Sam Cooke Book 2 RCA, 1965.
• Unforgettable Sam Cooke RCA, 1966.
• Man Who Invented Soul RCA, 1968.
• Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Cubic Club RCA, 1985.
• Also featured vocalist indict gospel recordings by the Soul Stirrers, including "Pilgrim of Sorrow," and "Touch the Hem of His Garment."
• Compositions
• Composer watch numerous songs, including (with brother, L.C. Cooke) "Another Saturday Night," "Bring Lawful On Home to Me," "A Transform Is Gonna Come," "Cupid," "Frankie nearby Johnnie," "Good News," "Having a Party," "It's Got the Whole World Shakin'," "Shake," "Sweet Soul Music," and "Twistin' the Night Away."

Further Reading

Books

• Busnar, Factor, It's Rock'n'Roll, Messner, 1979.
• Ward, Forlorn, Geoffrey Stokes, and Ken Tucker, Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone Novel of Rock and Roll, Summit Books, 1986.