Wonderful
Label: Not Now Music Limited NOT2CD202 (2007)
Tracklisting
Disc 1
Disc 2
Liner Notes
though his life was to end tragically in 1964 at the
age of just 33, Sam Cooke was a key figure in the
early development of soul and pop. His later career on the RCA label saw him cross over and appeal to the
lucrative white teenage market -Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye were just two to follow his example,
paving the way for Michael Jackson and the stars of today -while still commanding a core audience of
black listeners of all ages to whom he was a role model.
Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on the second day of January 1931, Sam was raised in Chicago where
his clergyman father had moved to preach. He was one of a family of eight, and sang alongside two
sisters and a brother in a junior gospel group, the aptly named Singing Children, at the age
of nine. This collection of songs captures Cooke a little later when he was a member of gospel group the Soul
Stirrers.
The catalyst for him joining this respected and established outfit, formed in Texas in 1934, was RB
Robinson, their baritone singer, who had been mentor to the teenage Highway gCs in which Sam had
featured.
The Soul Slirrers had frequently rubbed shoulders with the Pilgrim Travellers on the gospel circuit,
and when that group's JW Alexander became A&R man for the Speciality label's gospel department he
brought Cooke and company to California in March 1951 to audition. Alexander would subsequently become Sam's
business associate and mentor.
Owner Art Rupe was immediately struck by the young man's range and delivery, in the words of noted critic Clive Anderson 'singing and wailing righteously like he'd lived a millennium,.. world weary, cuffing off the sweat and finally soaring sanctified,' The qualities apparent in his tackling religious material would be retained in his later career, a quality maybe only Mavis Staples could claim to rival.
Sam had proved a hugely popular replacement for lead
singer RH Harris, who had stepped down in 1950, but Specialiy lelt he risked losing his audience when he
set his heart on releasing a secular solo single, The pseudonym of Dale Cook was therefore adopted but
fooled no-one, his pure voice an immediate giveaway, and orchestra leader Bumps Blackwell had to sign away
future royalties for his work with Little Richard to gain Cooke his freedom. Blackwell had seen the Soul
Stirrers at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium and was immediately convinced of their lead singer's
crossover potential. 'My initial impression was "That cat should be pop",' he told Cooke's biographer
Daniel Wolff, 'That was just too much voice to be in such a limited market.' A solo career began on the Keen label with a run of
exquisite romantic ballads including the two million -selling 'You Send Me' and '(What A) Wonderful
World'. But he split with Blackwell after being made to play the Copacabana nightclub in a suit with tails
-his first album had been slacked wilh jazz standards, similarly to appeal to a white audience -and a new deal wilh RCA followed. This included his
own label and music publishing house, with JW Alexander playing a major role throughout (the SAR
label being an acronym for Sam and Alexander Records).
A run of finely crafted pop songs such as 'Chain Gang' and 'Bring it On Home to Me' cemented his
crossover appeal, but Cooke was not content just to entertain and was inspired to address civil rights
issues by the emergence of Bob Oylan. The majestic gospel spiritual 'A Change Is Gonna Come' bares
witness to this. But the song would be a posthumous hit as, in 1964, Sam Cooke met his end in a motel shooting resulting
from his tangled private life. 200,000 fans turned out to pay their respects in two
memorial services to a true musical giant. Many would rate him alongside Ray Charles and Jackie
Wilson as one of the most influential founding fathers of what we now know as soul
music.
The use of his music for a TV ad campaign in 1986
took Sam Cooke back to the UK charts, while Steve
Miller, Rod Stewart, Cat Stevens and Aretha Franklin are among the many to have raided the Sam
Cooke songbook for material. Van Morrison won a Grammy nomination with his 1994 live performance
of 'You Send Me'. But there remains no greater thrill than to hear the man himself, whether singing secular songs
or, as here, his firsl love, gospel. Prepare to have your soul stirred...
Sleeve notes by Michael Heatley
Compilatian produced by Tony Watts and Glenn Gretlund
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