Songwriter and performer
Sam Cooke was one of the most popular and influential black singers
to
emerge in the late '50s, successfully to synthesize a blend of
gospel music and secular themes
and provided the early foundation of
soul music. Cooke's pure, clear vocals were widely imitated,
and his suave,
sophisticated image set the style of soul crooners for the next decade.
Sam Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on January 22, 1931, but grew up in Chicago, where his father Charles became a minister in the Church of Christ Holiness Church. By age nine Sam, with his two sisters, formed a gospel trio the Singing Children. As a teenager, he was a member of the nationally famous Highway Q.C.'s (so named because their home base was the Highway Baptist Church) with his younger brother, L.C. Cook. It was here that they sang with all the leading gospel groups of the day when they pased through Chicago. It was also where J.W. Alexander, tenor and manager of the Pilgrim Travelers, first saw the young Cooke. The Pilgrim Travelers were the second gospel group recorded by Specialty and Alexander soon became the label's chief gospel scout. In 1949 he brought the Soul Stirrers to Specialty.
In December 1950 Robert Harris the Soul Stirrers electrifying lead singer quit the group. R.B. Robinson spoke up for the young Cooke and in 1951, at the age of nineteen, he became lead vocalist of the Soul Stirrers, with whom he toured and recorded for six years. The Soul Stirrers were one of the top acts on the all night gospel circuit. The group recorded for Aladdin records in the 1940s and in 1948, they signed with Specialty Records.
Specialty, founded by Art Rupe in 1946, in it's first two years issued only up-tempo blues recordings. In 1948, Rupe discovered the wide open field of gospel and concentrated the next few years on gospel and boogie based blues to the exclusion of most other forms of music.
In 1950, Cooke's first session with the group produced "Jesus Gave Me Water." With his soaring vocal leads Cooke brought "style" to the gospel format. Though "Jesus Gave Me Water" betrays the youth and experience of the twenty year old Cooke it showed the potential Alexander saw in him.
Cooke soon became a gospel superstar. With the times changing soon Alexander was pressuring Ruppe to let Cooke issue records in the popular field. Constraints against gospel performers performing secular material were strong and woven deep into the fabric of the black community. However, the monetary and worldly rewards for singing gospel could never equal those for singing to the masses. Cooke gave in and recorded "Lovable" under the name Dale Cook. Cooke's voice was to unique not to be recognized. Lovable sold 25,000 copies.
"Lovable" set off a backlash from his gospel fans and the Soul Stirrers were booed whenever they made a personal appearance. Cooke was released by the Soul Stirrers and replaced by Johnny Taylor. In the next five months there were no more releases by "Dale Cook" or even Sam Cooke.
Bumps Blackwell, Specialty's chief A&R man asked for his release. With royalties due, Blackwell was offered Cooke's recording contract in lieu of cash. Blackwell accepted and signed Cooke with Keen Records, a new label started by Bob Keane.
Cooke sang his new songs with the same conviction he had brought to gospel
music. In 1957 he released "You Send Me" which became a number #1 hit and sold
1.7 million copies. "You Send Me" established Cooke as a commercial artist and
as an original pop stylist. In February, 1958 Specialty filed a lawsuit
claiming that Cooke had actually written and recorded "You Send 
Me" while still under contract to Specialty, then
recorded it for Keen. That being so the rights would have belonged to Specialty.
Cooke claimed the song had been written by his brother, who was under no such
restraints.
The musical pattern in "You Send Me" was the basis for most of Cooke's first year with Keen. They were love songs, with pretty arrangements and sung with a rolling, medium tempo.
In early 1959, Cooke released "Everyone Like To Cha Cha Cha" (#31) which represented a change in dance style before he returned to the two step with "Only Sixteen" (#28).
In 1959 Cooke left Keen over a royalty dispute. In1960 he signed with RCA and began writing blues, gospel inflected songs. After he joined RCA Victor, Keen issued his second biggest hit up to that time, the million selling "Wonderful World."
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With a live LP in the Top 30, Cooke was in L.A. partying when he met 22 year old Elisa Boyer at a club on December 11, 1964. They drove to South Central where they registered at the Hacienda Motel as Mr. and Mrs. Sam Cooke. Later Boyer left the room with most of Cooke's clothing. Cooke wearing one shoe and a jacket broke into the motel's office where he thought she was hiding. There he found Bertha Franklin the motel's manager who shoot him three times with a .22. Cooke was shoot and killed on December 11, 1964 at the Hacienda motel in Los Angeles. The manager of the motel, Bertha Franklin claimed Cooke had tried to rape a twenty one year old woman Elisa Boyer and then turned on her. The coroner's office ruled the death as justifiable homicide. Over thirty five years later there remain questions about the circumstances of Cooke's death and there has been talk about reopening the investigation.
Two months after his death his song "Shake" peaked at #& on the pop charts. Cooke's songs have been covered by both rock and soul singers. "A Change Is Gonna Come" was released in 1965 after his death and charted at #31. It represented a return to Cooke's roots, placing him back in the spiritual setting from which he had first emerged just nine years before.
Cooke was a ground
breaking black music capitalist. He owned his own record label (SAR/Derby), music publishing
company (Kags Music), and
management firm. His influences can be heard in the work of artists as varied as
Michael Jackson and the Heptones, but is most profoundly felt in the singing of
Otis Redding, Rod
Stewart, and Al Green. The 1994 compilation Sam Cooke's SAR Records Story
1959-1964 suggests that his impact as a producer, though less widely recognized,
was no less important.
Sam Cooke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986
Sam
Cooke
Sam's nephew David Cook's Web
Page.
