Go to the website OurUncleSam.com to get a copy

Book Description
In 1957, already one of the biggest stars in gospel music, Sam Cooke burst onto the pop scene with the number one hit "You Send Me," the first in a string of rock & roll classics. He quickly became one of music business's first African-American entrepreneurs, as well as a role model in the early years of the civil rights struggle. Then, at age thirty-three, he was found dead, shot through the heart in a seedy motel in south Los Angeles. The circumstances surrounding his death would remain a controversial mystery for years to come.

Reviews:    There are reviews from Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and Midwest Book review here.

Sale: The book is getting harder to get: try Amazon Hardcover and also for the Amazon Softcover

Biography written by Peter Guralnick, of Sweet Soul Music fame, more great books about music and many award-winning liner notes to Sam Cooke albums. Good read.

Dream Boogie : The Triumph of Sam Cooke released in both soft- and hardcover, Also for sale at Barnes & Noble---

Book: This is the definitive story on the history of soul in the United States. Has a chapter on Sam Cooke that was the basis for his Dream Boogie biography. The best book on soul ever written.

Sale: Always at Amazon starting at $12,21

Just My Soul Responding by Brian Ward

    This book by Englishman Ward is a very good, though sometimes written in a very university style of language, making it not always easy to follow. Many quotations and everything is covered: gospel, the youth gangs, the lyrics, the music etc. There is a good part about Sam Cooke too, in which Ward somewhat downplays the events in Norfolk as described by Daniel Woolf, saying that besides one interviews with a shopowner there is no evidence that Cooke was in Norfolk on that day, so his defiant stance against a segregated show is not true, especially since he did one two days later.

Sale: Amazon.com

The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made by Dave Marsh.

Great Book on the in his view 1001 greatest singles. Sam Cooke is in there 5x, but more songs of his are in the list as performed by other authors.

Sale: Amazon.com`

Nowhere To Run: The Story of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey.

Book: Good book about the history of soul, with much emphasis on motown however and no mention at all about the Muscle Shoals scene. Has a seperate chapter on Sam Cooke called 'Lady, You Shout Me'

Sale: Amazon.com for only $10,17

Deep Soul Ballads, From Sam Cooke to Stevie Wonder by Laurence Cole

Appealing to a wide range of music lovers, this fascinating account explores an earlier era in soul music from a contemporary perspective. Highlighting previously underexposed and underappreciated performers and recordings, this invaluable reference rediscovers numerous ballads recorded by American soul singers during a 25-year postwar period. The tracks of well-known artists from Doris Day and Aretha Franklin to Otis Redding and the Four Tops are also chronicled in this thoroughly and passionately written history.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781907471087

• Publisher: Libri Publishing

• Publication date: 11/1/2010

For Sale At Barnes & Noble

The Holy Profane: Religion in Black Popular Music by Teresa L. Reed

Book: I very much enjoyed reading this book. Not only about the musical aspects but most of all the lyrical aspects of religion in black music. From the early 20th century, through Sam Cooke to 2Pac Shakur.

Sale: Amazon.com for $25,00 or Barnes & Noble

People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music by Robert Darden

Book: I have really enjoyed reading this book because it gives a great insight into the history of gospel music, starting in Africa before the slave trade. Of course the Soul Stirrers are mentioned as well.

Sale: Starting at $16.97 at Amazon

Book: This is the only book so far on the interesting but also tragic life of Jackie Wilson, who often toured with Sam Cooke

Sale:  Amazon.com

Book: Autobiography of Bobby Womack, has some very good information on Sam and his family, since Bobby married Sam's widow Barbara

Sale: Amazon.com

Book: About Bob Dylan but there are a few great words about Sam's "A Change Is Gonna Come"

Dion The Wanderer Talks Truth

Book: Dion talks somewhat about being on the road with Sam.

Sale: At Barnes & Noble

The Celestial Jukebox by Cynthia Shearer.

Set in the invented Mississippi Delta town of Madagascar, Cynthia Shearer's The Celestial Jukebox depicts a rural South dependent on agribusiness and the fruits of some less attractive forms of capitalism--gambling and other vices. Into this world comes Boubacar, a fifteen-year-old African boy joining friends from Mauritania already living in the area. They are new African blacks not especially noteworthy in a town filled with Chinese emigrants, African Americans within memory of slavery, and straggling members of the original white families of the area. Presiding over Madagascar is Angus, the second-generation Delta Chinese proprietor of the Celestial Grocery, and his vintage jukebox with its treasure of Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, and Wanda Jackson songs.
The ties that bind the lives in this community together are American roots music and the desire to make a home in the rural South. The purity and beauty of Cynthia Shearer's writing--like the purity of music that exists within this story, an imagined soundtrack of more than thirty songs--marks The Celestial Jukebox as that most rare book, a novel as historically expansive as it is intimate, filled with music, wisdom, and spontaneous joy.

For sale at Barnes & Noble