Sam Cooke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)
Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke recording in the studio.
Sam Cooke recording in the studio.
Background information
Birth name Samuel Cook[1]
Also known as Dale Cooke
Born January 22, 1931(1931-01-22)
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Origin Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died December 11, 1964 (aged 33)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, entrepreneur
Instrument(s) Vocals, piano, Guitar
Years active 1950–1964
Label(s) Specialty, Keen, RCA
Associated acts The Soul Stirrers
Bobby Womack
Johnnie Taylor

Sam Cooke (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music.[2][3]

Cooke had 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1965. Major hits like "You Send Me", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World" and "Bring It on Home to Me" are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.[4]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Sam Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He added an "e" onto the end of his name because he thought it added a touch of class. He was one of seven children of Annie Mae and the Reverend Charles Cook, a Baptist minister. The family moved to Chicago in 1933.

Cooke began his musical career as a member of a quartet with his siblings, The Singing Children, and, as a teenager, he was a member of the Highway QCs, a gospel group. In 1950, at the age of 19, he joined The Soul Stirrers and achieved significant success and fame within the gospel community.

His first pop single, "Lovable" (1956), was released under the alias of "Dale Cooke" in order to not alienate his gospel fan base; there was a considerable taboo against gospel singers performing secular music. However, the alias failed to hide Cooke's unique and distinctive vocals. No one was fooled.[5] Art Rupe, head of Specialty Records, the label of the Soul Stirrers, gave his blessing for Cooke to record secular music under his real name, but he was unhappy about the type of music Cooke and producer Bumps Blackwell were making. Rupe expected Cooke's secular music to be similar to that of another Specialty Records artist, Little Richard. When Rupe walked in on a recording session and heard Cooke covering Gershwin, he was quite upset. After an argument between Rupe and Blackwell, Cooke and Blackwell left the label.

In 1957, Cooke signed with Keen Records. His first release was "You Send Me", the B-side of his first Keen single (the A-side was a reworking of George Gershwin's "Summertime"[6]) which spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B chart. The song also had massive mainstream success, spending three weeks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart.[7]

In 1961, Cooke started his own record label, SAR Records, with J.W. Alexander and his manager, Roy Crain.[8] The label soon included The Simms Twins, The Valentinos, Bobby Womack, and Johnnie Taylor. Cooke then created a publishing imprint and management firm, then left Keen to sign with RCA Victor. One of his first RCA singles was the hit "Chain Gang." It reached #2 on the Billboard pop chart. This was followed by more hits, including "Sad Mood", "Bring it on Home to Me" (with Lou Rawls on backing vocals), "Another Saturday Night" and "Twistin' the Night Away".

Like most R&B artists of his time, Cooke focused on singles; in all he had 29 top 40 hits on the pop charts, and more on the R&B charts. In spite of this, he released a well received blues-inflected LP in 1963, Night Beat, and his most critically-acclaimed studio album Ain't That Good News, which featured five singles, in 1964.

[edit] Death

Cooke died at the age of 33 on December 11, 1964 in Los Angeles, California. He was shot to death by Bertha Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel in South Los Angeles, who claimed that he had threatened her, and that she killed him in self-defense. The shooting was ultimately ruled to be a justifiable homicide,[5] though there have been arguments that crucial details did not come out in court, or were buried afterward. Cooke was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California.

Some posthumous releases followed, many of which became hits, including "A Change Is Gonna Come", an early protest song which is generally regarded as his greatest composition.[9] After Cooke's death, his widow, Barbara, married Bobby Womack. Cooke's daughter, Linda, later married Bobby's brother, Cecil.[8]

[edit] Controversy

The details of the case involving Cooke's death are still in dispute. The official police record[10] states that Cooke was shot dead by Bertha Franklin, the manager of the Hacienda Motel, where Cooke had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office/apartment in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and a sports coat (with nothing beneath it) demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the motel. Franklin said that the woman was not in the office and that she told Cooke this, but the enraged Cooke did not believe her and violently grabbed her, demanding again to know the woman's whereabouts. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve her gun. She said that she then fired at Cooke in self-defense because she feared for her life. According to Franklin, Cooke exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me", before finally falling, mortally wounded.

According to Franklin and to the motel's owner, Evelyn Carr, they had been on the phone together at the time of the incident. Thus, Carr claimed to have overheard Cooke's intrusion and the ensuing conflict and gunshots. Carr called the police to request that they go to the motel, informing them that she believed a shooting had occurred.

A coroner's inquest was convened to investigate the incident. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night shortly before Carr did. Boyer had called the police from a phone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped from being kidnapped.

Boyer told the police that she had first met Cooke earlier that night and had spent the evening in his company. She claimed that after they left a local nightclub together, she had repeatedly requested that he take her home, but that he instead took her against her will to the Hacienda Motel. She claimed that once in one of the motel's rooms, Cooke physically forced her onto the bed and that she was certain he was going to rape her. According to Boyer, when Cooke stepped into the bathroom for a moment, she quickly grabbed her clothes and ran from the room. She claimed that in her haste, she had also scooped up most of Cooke's clothing by mistake. She said that she ran first to the manager's office and knocked on the door seeking help. However, she said that the manager took too long in responding, so, fearing Cooke would soon be coming after her, she fled the motel altogether before the manager ever opened the door. She claimed she then put her own clothing back on, stashed Cooke's clothing away and went to the phone booth from which she called police.

Boyer's story is the only account of what happened between the two that night. However, her story has long been called into question. Because of inconsistencies between her version of events and details reported by other witnesses as well as circumstantial evidence (e.g., cash that Cooke was reportedly carrying was never recovered, and Boyer was soon after arrested for prostitution), many people feel it is more likely that Boyer went willingly to the motel with Cooke and then slipped out of the room with Cooke's clothing in order to rob him rather than to escape an attempted rape.

Ultimately, such questions were beyond the scope of the inquest, whose purpose was simply to establish the circumstances of Franklin's role in the shooting, not to determine exactly what had happened between Cooke and Boyer preceding that. Boyer's leaving the motel room with almost all of Cooke's clothing, regardless of exactly why she did so, combined with the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, seemed to provide a plausible explanation for Cooke's bizarre behavior and state of dress, as reported by Franklin and Carr. This explanation, together with the fact that Carr, from what she said she had overheard, corroborated Franklin's version of events, was enough to convince the coroner's jury to accept Franklin's explanation that it was a case of justifiable homicide. With that verdict, authorities officially closed the case on Cooke's death.[11]

However, some of Cooke's family and supporters have rejected not only Boyer's version of events but also Franklin's and Carr's. They believe that there was a conspiracy to murder Cooke and that the murder took place in some manner entirely different from Franklin, Boyer, and Carr's official accounts. Nevertheless, no solid, reviewable evidence supporting a conspiracy theory has been presented to date.[12][13][14]

My brother was first class all the way. He would not check into a $3-a-night motel; that wasn't his style.

— Agnes Cooke-Hoskins, sister of Sam Cooke, attending the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2005 tribute to Cooke.

In her autobiography, Rage to Survive, singer Etta James claimed that she viewed Cooke's body in the funeral home and that the injuries she observed were well beyond what could be explained by the official account of Franklin alone having fought with Cooke. James described Cooke as having been so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose was mangled.[15]

[edit] Posthumous honors

[edit] Covers

[edit] In popular culture

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2008)
  • In 2007 Irish rock-group Jetplane Landing released the album Backlash Cop featuring the song "Sam Cooke".
  • A fictional version of Cooke (portrayed by Paul Mooney) appeared briefly in the 1978 film, The Buddy Holly Story, leaving the stage at the Apollo Theater before Buddy and The Crickets got on.
  • Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" was memorably featured in Spike Lee's film Malcolm X.
  • Rapper 2Pac references Sam Cooke in a line of the song "Thugz Mansion", as well as rapper Nas, who references him in the song "We Major" with Kanye West. In the Roots song "Stay Cool" the lyrics say, "I got the soul of a young Sam Cooke".
  • The 1987 film Inner Space, starring Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid and Martin Short featured the music of Cooke throughout. "Cupid" was played regularly as it was said to be Ryan and Quaids' song, what is widely regarded as the film's most funny scene features Short in an inebriated state, dancing and playing a keyboard along to "Twistin' the Night Away".
  • After being featured prominently in the 1985 film Witness[19] (starring Harrison Ford), the song "Wonderful World" gained further exposure. "Wonderful World" was featured in one of two concurrently running Levi's Jeans commercials in 1985 and became a hit in the United Kingdom because of this, reaching #2 in re-release. Other notable movies that featured his music are Animal House ("Wonderful World" and "Twistin' the Night Away") and Cadence ("Chain Gang").
  • Cooke's songs "Bring It on Home to Me" and "Change is Gonna Come" were both featured in the movie Ali. The opening scene of the movie consisted of a live reenactment of "Bring It on Home to Me". The song "A Change Is Gonna Come" was played upon the death of Malcolm X.
  • Sam Cooke is referenced in the 2000 song "Sleepwalker" by the Wallflowers, "Cupid don't draw back your bow, Sam Cooke didn't know what I know"
  • In The West Wing episode "A Change is Gonna Come", the President posthumously awards Sam Cooke; James Taylor then performs a rendition of the song.
  • Cooke is referenced in Mike Doughty's song "Sweet Lord in Heaven" on the album "Skittish"; "I saw Sam Cooke and Ian Curtis..."

[edit] Discography

For a detailed listing of albums and singles, see: Sam Cooke discography.

[edit] Hit US and UK singles

Year Title Chart positions
US R&B UK
1957 "You Send Me" #1 #1 #29
1957 "I'll Come Running Back to You" #18 #1
1959 "Only Sixteen" #28 #13 #23
1960 "Wonderful World" #12 #2 #27
1960 "Chain Gang" #2 #2 #9
1961 "Cupid" #17 #20 #7
1962 "Twistin' the Night Away" #9 #1 #6
1963 "Another Saturday Night" #10 #1 #23
1963 "Frankie and Johnny" #14 - #30
1965 "Shake" #7 #4
1986 "Wonderful World" (re-issue) - - #2
1986 "Another Saturday Night" (re-issue) - - #75

[edit] Hit US and UK albums

Year Title Chart positions
US UK
1957 Sam Cooke #16
1962 The Best of Sam Cooke #22
1963 Night Beat
1964 Ain't That Good News #34
1964 Sam Cooke at the Copa #29
1986 The Man and His Music #8
2003 Portrait of a Legend: 1951-1964 #30
2005 Portrait of a Legend: 1951-1964 (re-issue) #19

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sam Cooke". Britannica online. Retrieved on 2008-09-28.
  2. ^ Appiah, Kwame Anthony; Gates, Henry Louis; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (2004). Africana: An A-to-Z Reference of Writers, Musicians, and Artists of the African American Experience. Running Press, 146. ISBN 0-762-42042-1. 
  3. ^ DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James (1992). The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and their Music, George-Warren, Holly, Random House, 135. ISBN 0-679-73728-6. 
  4. ^ Guralnick, Peter (2005-09-22). "The Man Who Invented Soul". rollingstone.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-08.
  5. ^ a b Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits: The Inside Story Behind Every Number One Single on Billboard's Hot 100 from 1955 to the Present. Billboard Books, 30. ISBN 0-823-07677-6. 
  6. ^ Guralnick, Peter (2005). Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. Little, Brown and Company, 167. ISBN 0-316-37794-5. 
  7. ^ Dean, Maury (2003). Rock 'N' Roll Gold Rush: A Singles Un-cyclopedia. Algora Publishing, 176. ISBN 0-875-86207-1. 
  8. ^ a b Warner, Jay; Jones, Quincy (2006). On This Day in Black Music History. Hal Leonard Corporation, 10. ISBN 0-634-09926-4. 
  9. ^ "Sam Cooke's Swan Song of Protest". npr.org. Retrieved on 2008-08-08.
  10. ^ Wolff, Daniel. You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke, New York: William Morrow, 1995 ISBN 0688124038
  11. ^ Robinson, Louie. "The Tragic Death of Sam Cooke", Ebony, February 1965
  12. ^ Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick tackles another music legend: Sam Cooke
  13. ^ Gary James' Interview With Solomon Burke
  14. ^ Soul man, Sam Cooke's fulfilling late period
  15. ^ James, Etta; Ritz, David (2003). Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story. Da Capo Press, 151. ISBN 0-306-81262-2. 
  16. ^ "Sam Cooke". rockhall.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-08.
  17. ^ "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
  18. ^ "Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story From His Family's Perspective". ourunclesam.com.
  19. ^ Witness, 1985 film soundtrack

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Persondata
NAME Cooke, Sam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cook, Samuel
SHORT DESCRIPTION Singer-songwriter, entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Clarksdale, Mississippi
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1964
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles, California
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Cooke"
Personal tools