Album: Ain't That Good News
Artist: Sam Cooke
Born: Clarksdale, Mississippi
Released: March 1964
Genre: Soul
Influenced: Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Smokey Robinson
After the Father of Soul and the Godfather of Soul, completing this trio of founding soul legends is the King of Soul, Sam Cooke. Ain't That Good News, released the year he died (1964) aged just 33, is the best of his studio albums. Cooke brought the spirituality of gospel to soul music and then brought soul to the masses. He was the original crossover soul star, starting with You Send Me (1957), followed by hit singles Chain Gang (1960) and Twistin' The Night Away (1962). His voice was the smoothest in the history of soul music and more influential than any other on the Motown sound. As Bob Stanley puts it in his brilliant Yeah Yeah Yeah, Cooke had a mix of "gentility and gospel growl", and beneath that friendly facade was an ever-growing racially-conscious intensity. This was first hinted at on Chain Gang, followed up with on That's Where It's At, reaching its peak with A Change Is Gonna Come, not just the best song on this album but one of the best of the 20th century.
Legend has it that A Change Is Gonna Come was written by Cooke in response to hearing Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind, and a feeling that it was time a black artist expressed similar sentiments about racism and the civil rights movement in song. The fact it was one of the last songs that Cooke wrote and recorded makes it, as Bob Stanley says, a "sad epitaph". Such was Cooke's standing in the civil rights movement that, in February 1964, he would be the first man Cassius Clay (soon to become Muhammad Ali) called into the ring after beating Sonny Liston, and together that night they would both spend the night at Malcolm X's motel room. Quite a gathering. Cooke was also one of the first black performers to set up his own record company, SAR. As well as the title track, there are several great songs on this album, notably Another Saturday Night, written about his time touring England and not being allowed out of his hotel room, but it's the power of A Change Is Gonna Come that raises this album to essential status.
Artist: Sam Cooke
Born: Clarksdale, Mississippi
Released: March 1964
Genre: Soul
Influenced: Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Smokey Robinson
After the Father of Soul and the Godfather of Soul, completing this trio of founding soul legends is the King of Soul, Sam Cooke. Ain't That Good News, released the year he died (1964) aged just 33, is the best of his studio albums. Cooke brought the spirituality of gospel to soul music and then brought soul to the masses. He was the original crossover soul star, starting with You Send Me (1957), followed by hit singles Chain Gang (1960) and Twistin' The Night Away (1962). His voice was the smoothest in the history of soul music and more influential than any other on the Motown sound. As Bob Stanley puts it in his brilliant Yeah Yeah Yeah, Cooke had a mix of "gentility and gospel growl", and beneath that friendly facade was an ever-growing racially-conscious intensity. This was first hinted at on Chain Gang, followed up with on That's Where It's At, reaching its peak with A Change Is Gonna Come, not just the best song on this album but one of the best of the 20th century.
Legend has it that A Change Is Gonna Come was written by Cooke in response to hearing Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind, and a feeling that it was time a black artist expressed similar sentiments about racism and the civil rights movement in song. The fact it was one of the last songs that Cooke wrote and recorded makes it, as Bob Stanley says, a "sad epitaph". Such was Cooke's standing in the civil rights movement that, in February 1964, he would be the first man Cassius Clay (soon to become Muhammad Ali) called into the ring after beating Sonny Liston, and together that night they would both spend the night at Malcolm X's motel room. Quite a gathering. Cooke was also one of the first black performers to set up his own record company, SAR. As well as the title track, there are several great songs on this album, notably Another Saturday Night, written about his time touring England and not being allowed out of his hotel room, but it's the power of A Change Is Gonna Come that raises this album to essential status.
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