Covered: Sam Cooke: 1957-2009

It's time for more of my Covered series highlighting great songwriters. I generally want to look at songwriters who didn't have successful careers as performers, but sometimes I make exceptions, and this is one of those times. Sam Cooke is generally known as a great soul singer. For instance, in 2023, Rolling Stone Magazine listed him as number three in their list of the 200 best singers of all time. But I think his talent as a songwriter is far less known and appreciated.

To give the basics about him, I'll quote from his Wikipedia entry:

"Considered one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the 'King of Soul' for his distinctive vocals, pioneering contributions to the genre, and significance in popular music. During his eight-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as 20 singles in the Top Ten of Billboard's Black Singles chart. In 1964, he was shot and killed by Bertha Franklin, a motel owner in Los Angeles with a prior criminal record."

I would add to that the fact that Cooke wrote most of his own hits. That was quite unusual back in the 1950s and early 1960s, before the likes of Bob Dylan and the Beatles changed the expectation that performers should write their own material. And particularly for soul music singers writing their own material continued to be rare for quite some time after that.

What hurts most of all is that it seemed Cooke still had a long career as a singer and songwriter ahead of him when he died in 1964 at the age of 33. In my opinion, he wrote his greatest song, "A Change Is Gonna Come," shortly before his death (it was released one month after he died), after being inspired by "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan. It would have been great to see how someone as talented as him would have been influenced by all the musical changes that happened after 1964, but sadly, we'll never know. 

And what makes it worse is that his death seems very suspicious and unnecessary. Law enforcement never seriously investigated it. The woman mentioned above who supposedly shot and killed him, Bertha Franklin, was later convicted of murdering someone else in similar circumstances. The whole thing is really bizarre. I'm guessing he was lured into having sex with a young woman in order to rob him, and that woman who was in cahoots with Franklin, the motel owner. But something went wrong and he got murdered.

Here's the Wikipedia article about him, if you want to know more, including more details about his mysterious death:

Sam Cooke - Wikipedia

Anyway, since the focus here is on Sam Cooke the songwriter, I haven't included any songs performed by him. By the way, note that three songs he wrote, "Wonderful World," "Cupid," and "A Change Is Gonna Come," made it to Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 songs of all time.

Two songs here need a little explanation. "Sweet Soul Music" wasn't exactly written by Cooke. It was written by Otis Redding and Arthur Conley in 1967, and was a big hit. However, it drew so heavily from a Cooke song called "Yeah Man" that he was included in the songwriting credits (after a lawsuit forced the issue). Also, I generally keep to a rule of only including one version of each song. But I consider "A Change Is Gonna Come" such an incredible song that I couldn't resist including two versions of it.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

01 You Send Me (Teresa Brewer)
02 Rome [Wasn't Built in a Day] (Johnnie Taylor)
03 Shake (Otis Redding)
04 [Ain't That] Good News (Supremes)
05 A Change Is Gonna Come (Aretha Franklin)
06 Soothe Me (Sam & Dave)
07 Sweet Soul Music (Arthur Conley)
08 Cupid (Johnny Nash)
09 Win Your Love (Lou Rawls)
10 Laughin' and Clownin' (Ray Charles)
11 Chain Gang (Persuasions)
12 Twistin' the Night Away (Rod Stewart)
13 Love You Most of All (Persuasions)
14 Bring It on Home to Me (Van Morrison)
15 You Were Made for Me (Luther Ingram)
16 Another Saturday Night (Cat Stevens)
17 Only Sixteen (Dr. Hook)
18 [What A] Wonderful World (Art Garfunkel with Paul Simon & James Taylor)
19 Good Times (Dan Seals)
20 Somebody Have Mercy (Otis Rush)
21 Having a Party (Rod Stewart)
22 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On (Adele)
23 A Change Is Gonna Come (Bettye LaVette)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17435669/COVRDSAMCOKE1957-2009atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7xcDcVKx

(NOTE: This could be my last new Pixeldrain link, since I happened to upload this album before I got banned from new uploads to their service.)

I'm not sure when or where the cover photo is from, but it's a rare case of an actual color photo from his short life, before color became the standard.