On the road, he liked to frequent after-hours joints and act like a playboy, fathering a bunch of children along the way.
But at home, he could be brooding and solitary, stubborn over the smallest things.
Those personality traits of Sam Cooke and much more are covered in Peter Guralnick's new biography of the late singing legend, "Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke" (Little, Brown and Company; $27.95).
Guralnick, the author of two acclaimed Elvis Presley biographies, among other music books, paints a detailed and dramatic picture of Cooke's life and career. It was the Rev. Charles Cook (the original spelling of the family name), Guralnick writes, who got the ball rolling, coming up with the idea to have 6-year-old son Sam and siblings perform gospel music as the Singing Children.
Following a stint with the Highway QCs, Cooke joined the Soul Stirrers, arguably the most influential gospel group of its time, circa 1950. Guralnick writes that during Cooke's first Soul Stirrers recording session, he sang a lead as though he was singing a pop song.
Years later, Cooke rocked the gospel community when he departed the Stirrers to write and sing pop music full-time, subsequently adding the "e" to his surname to make it appear classier. From 1957 to 1964, 36 of Cooke's recordings landed on the Billboard pop-singles chart, among them "You Send Me" and "Chain Gang." On Dec. 11, 1964, he was shot to death under strange circumstances at a California motel. Cooke was 33.
In chronicling the lives of entertainers, one of Guralnick's strengths is his ability to economically and effectively describe a performer's skills, either through his own words or those of others. To explain Cooke's signature "yodel" ("whoa-oho-oh-oh-oh"), Guralnick begins with a quote from Cooke's friend and business associate J.W. Alexander, who recalled that the move came about when Cooke "bent" a high note he couldn't quite reach.
From there, Guralnick writes how Cooke could work the yodel "into the body of any song, thereby lending it an altogether different flavor, a yodel that, unlike (onetime Soul Stirrers singer) R.H. Harris' daunting octave leaps, softened rather than intensified the thrust of the song."
There's no attempt to sugarcoat or downplay Cooke's womanizing ways in "Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke," nor does the dirt dominate the book. Guralnick shows a true appreciation and understanding of Cooke's music throughout, often going into great detail about Cooke's songwriting and recording sessions. One of the more interesting tidbits has to do with the hit "Cupid," for which Cooke had two backup singers imitate the sound of an arrow in flight.
Archival and fresh interviews with Cooke's family and his contemporaries add a tremendous amount of color, insight and perspective to the book; among the notables quoted are Lou Adler, Herb Alpert, Bobby Womack and Cooke's father.
The book's flaws are minimal: While the passages about Cooke's recording contracts and royalty payments are precise, they're a bit too stuffy and businesslike.
Cooke's death and its messy aftermath conclude the book. Right from the start of "Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke," Guralnick balances a flair for the narrative, an eye for detail and a thorough understanding of his subject, unlike a majority of music biographers.