Remembering The Great Sam Cooke

Today we pay tribute to one of the most important figures in 20th century pop culture: vocalist, songwriter, producer, civil rights activist and recording/music publishing entrepreneur Sam Cooke (January 22, 1931- December 11, 1964).





Second only to Elvis Presley as a maker of hit records at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s, Sam Cooke was poised at the time of his death to be one of the kings of show business.



How big was the Cooke phenomenon in the late 1950's and early 1960's?







He appeared multiple times on THE TONIGHT SHOW (in this instance on February 7, 1964).



Here's Sam with fellow titan of early rock, pop and soul Jackie Wilson.



Cooke was also a passionate advocate on the front lines in the civil rights movement.



This is reflected powerfully in Cooke's best known and most covered song, A Change Is Gonna Come.





Sam Cooke began his career as the star of the top gospel ensemble The Soul Stirrers and would be among the few to successfully transition from gospel to r&b and pop.



The following interview with Dick Clark indicates the direction Sam Cooke was going in at the time of his death, as head of a record company that produced hits with a roster of artists as Berry Gordy had begun doing at Motown/Tamla Records.



Sam had been running his own L.A. label (SAR Records), as Curtis Mayfield would do a few years later, as part of a team that ran Curtom Records, but did not live to see his ambitious expansion plans come to fruition. One wonders if organized crime and sleazy music industry individuals joined forces to make sure Sam did not succeed.



There are a several documentaries, all worth watching and more than a bit sad, on the life, times and tragic demise of Sam Cooke.





The sordid circumstances of the still unsolved murder of Sam Cooke at the seedy Hacienda Motel couldn't be more fishy if they were a massive catch (no doubt including flounder) left out in the sun to stink. Why there was NO investigation, we can only imagine.



In closing, will spotlight the Sam Cooke recordings. A favorite record of the r&b aficionados at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog is Cooke's classic Live At The Harlem Square Club.

While Cooke's music tended to be more in a pop vein than soul, the incendiary sounds of Live At The Harlem Square Club rock the house with blazing r&b and look forward to Otis Redding's devastating set from the 1967 Monterey Pop festival.