Try A Little Love

Releases: 

• RCA Victor LPM 3435 (1965), USA mono
• RCA Victor LSP 3435, USA stereo
• RCA Victor LSP-3425. Made in Germany, almost identical, the cover has 'LSP-3435 STEREO' in the left top corner in a white inlay (USA version is just black letters) and the RCA sign on the right, whereas the USA version has the famous RCA dog listening to the record player. The picture is a little smaller, there is a difference of about in inch at the bottom. On the back the LSP-3425 / STEREO / LSP-3435 are printed. The text on the record itself is also different, again no doggy and there is a mention that this is in 'ortophonic sound'. The playing time of one side is also mentioned.
• RCA RD (mono) /SF (stereo) 7764 (1966 UK)

Songs: 

1. Try A Little Love
2. Don't Cry
3. Bridge Of Tears
4. I Fall In Love Every Day
5. You're Always On My Mind
6. Theme From Houseboat (Almost In Your Arms)
7. When A Boy Falls In Love
8. To Each His Own
9. Tammy
10. The Gypsy
11. Little Things You Do
12. You Send Me

Liner Notes

Sammy talks about Sam

     When RCA Victor asked me to express my feelings about Sam Cooke in the liner notes on this album, I didn’t hesitate to accept. I thought of it as an opportunity – a chance to pay tribute to a man whose music knocked me out.

            Then, when I tried to put my thoughts into words, I almost regretted my hasty decision. What words can describe the feeling you get when a man’s soul spills into a song the way Sam’s did? I don’t know.

            But I do know, that for Sam it was as natural as breathing.

            When you listen to him on records, you don’t hear a highly trained, technically pure voice. What you hear is the sound Sam Cooke was born with – a sound as spontaneous and uncontrived as a child’s laughter or a mother’s tears. What Sam knew about music, he knew in his heart . . . and it’s his heart that you hear singing.

            When he delivered an “up” tune, he made the joy in it sparkle. If the song was sad, forget it. He made you feel every ounce of misery with his delivery.

            All this you hear, but you had to see Sam on a session to know how inventive he was, to appreciate the originality if his talent. When he recorded a song of his own, there were never two takes alike because he wrote the lyrics as he sang them. And if it was someone else’s material, he gave it a new flavor that made it sound like it was just written for him.

            The news of Sam’s death was a great shock to me, as it was to all his countless friends and his millions of fans. Once in a great while a man comes along who is so full of life, who has so much to give, that his death is unacceptable. Sam was one of these. Like everyone else who loved him, I’ve consoled myself with the knowledge that Sam lived in and for his music. And he left that with us.

            TRY A LITTLE LOVE is a fitting title for this album. It’s the kind of legacy Sam would have liked. I can hear him now, saying, “Man, that’s beautiful!”

                                                (signed) Sammy Davis Jr.