One of the most important soul singers in history, Sam Cooke was also one of the first gospel artists to cross over to what would become soul music.

Gospel Roots
Sam Cooke was born Samuel Cook on Thursday, January 22, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He was one of five boys and three girls born to Rev. Charles and Annie Mae Cook. The family moved to Chicago in 1933. Sam started singing when he was 19 years old with a very successful gospel group, the Soul Stirrers, which included two of his sisters and one brother.

Soul Stirrers Star
Reluctant at first to take on this young singer, the Soul Stirrers soon found that the audience seized on Cooke’s melodious voice and his gospel career took off. The world began beating a path to Sam Cooke’s door. Over the next six years, his role within the group and his prominence within the black community rose to the point where he was already a star through his performances on songs like "Touch the Hem of His Garment," "Nearer to Thee," and "That's Heaven to Me." Cooke’s appeal to young and old, black and white, beyond the gospel audience was soon very apparent. However, if Sam Cooke had never recorded a note of music on his own, he would still be remembered today in gospel circles for his work with the Soul Stirrers .

Didn’t Fool Anyone
The Soul Stirrers was one of the top acts on Art Rupe’s Specialty Records label, and Sam Cooke might have gone on for years as their most popular singer, but his goal was to reach audiences beyond the religious community, and beyond the black population, through his voice. A tall order at the time, as the mere act of recording a popular song could alienate the gospel listenership in an instant; singing for God was regarded in those circles as a gift and a responsibility. Popular music, rock n`roll, and R&B were to be abhorred, at least coming from the mouth of a gospel singer. In 1956, Cooke released a pop single called “Loveable” on the same Specialty label that recorded the Stirrers' music, but he used his brother’s name, Dale Cook, on the label instead of his own to avoid upsetting the gospel group and his gospel fans. Fooling no one, agonizing over which direction to take, Cooke continued to sing with the Soul Stirrers into the summer of 1957 although he was ostracized. By late summer, he was dropped from the Specialty label, moved over to the tiny start-up Keen label and in the fall of 1957, “You Send Me” was released.

“You Send Me”
“You Send Me” shot to number one, not only on the R&B charts but on the pop charts too. This was a first-time achievement, one that would take Ray Charles another three years to match. Sam Cooke was immediately established as a commercial artist and pop stylist. The song showcased the qualities of a great singer; the phrasing was distinctively Sam Cooke with the ululating “Who-oh-oh,” it established an immediate identity. The merging of gospel and pop, in a lilting, swinging delivery was a “sweet approach” said Jerry Wexler of Atlantic, who also claimed, “Sam Cooke was the best singer who ever lived, no contest.” “You Send Me” would sell over 2 million copies for the tiny Keen label and become one of the biggest selling singles of the 50’s. It was with this release that Cooke, and others, saw ever more clearly that there was indeed a large crossover audience for this newly forming soulful blend, inspired by black gospel and blues, and infused with pop.

A New Way Of Doing Business
Cooke stayed with Keen for two years, where he delivered some of the prettiest romantic ballads and teen pop singles of the era, including “For Sentimental Reasons, “Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha,” and “Only Sixteen.” He was unhappy, however, with both the business arrangement that he had with Keen and the limitations inherent with recording for a small label. Equally to the point, major labels were knocking on Cooke 's door, including Atlantic and RCA Records. Atlantic, which was not yet the international conglomerate that it later became, was the top R&B-oriented label in the country and Cooke almost certainly would have signed there and found a happy home with the company, except that they wanted his publishing. Cooke had seen the sales figures on his songs, as well as their popularity in cover versions by other artists, and was well aware of the importance of owning his copyrights. Thus, he signed with RCA Records, then one of the three biggest labels in the world, while he organized his own publishing company, Kags Music, and a record label, SAR, through which he would produce other artists' records. Among those signed to SAR were the Soul Stirrers , Bobby Womack (late of the Valentinos , who were also signed to the label), former Soul Stirrers member Johnny Taylor , Billy Preston , Johnnie Morisette , and the Simms Twins.

Breaking New Ground
Cooke 's RCA sides were a schizophrenic body of work, at least for the first two years. He broke new ground in pop and soul with the single "Chain Gang," a mix of sweet melodies and gritty, sweaty sensibilities that also introduced something of a social conscience to his work. A number two hit on both the pop and R&B charts, "Chain Gang" was Cooke’s biggest hit since "You Send Me" and heralded a bolder phase in his career. Singles like bluesy, romantic "Sad Mood," the idyllic romantic soul of "Cupid," the straight-ahead dance tune "Twistin' the Night Away" (a pop Top Ten and a number one R&B hit), and "Bring It on Home to Me" all lived up to this promise, and also sold in huge numbers. But the first two albums that RCA had him do, Hits of the Fifties and Cooke's Tour, were among the lamest LPs ever recorded by any soul or R&B singer, composed of washed-out pop tunes in arrangements that showed almost none of Cooke 's gifts to their full advantage.

Creative Control And Social Consciousness
The drowning death of his infant son in mid-1963 had made it impossible for Cooke to work in the studio until the end of that year. During that time, however, with Allen Klein now managing his business affairs, Cooke did achieve the financial and creative independence that he'd wanted, including more money than any black performer had ever been advanced, and the eventual ownership of his recordings beginning in November of 1963. Cooke had achieved creative control of his recordings as well, and seemed poised for a breakthrough. It came when he resumed making records, amid the musical ferment of the early 60's. Cooke was keenly aware of the music around him, and was particularly entranced by Bob Dylan 's "Blowin' in the Wind," its treatment of the plight of black Americans and other politically oppressed minorities. All of these factors convinced him that the time was right for songs that dealt with more than twisting the night away.

Power In Song - “A Change Is Gonna Come”
The result was "A Change Is Gonna Come," one of the greatest songs to come out of the civil rights struggle, and one that seemed to close and seal the gap between the two directions of Cooke 's career, from gospel to pop. Arguably his greatest and his most important song, it was an artistic apotheosis for Cooke . During this same period, he had also devised a newer, more advanced dance-oriented soul sound in the form of the song "Shake." These two recordings heralded a new era for Cooke and a new phase of his career, with seemingly the whole world open to him.

Death…And Shock
None of it was to be. Early in the day on December 11, 1964, while in Los Angeles,Cooke became involved in an altercation at a seedy motel with a woman guest and the night manager, and was shot to death while allegedly trying to attack the manager.Cooke 's death shocked the black community and reverberated far beyond. The single "Shake" was a posthumous Top Ten hit, as were "A Change Is Gonna Come" and the At the Copa album, released in 1965.

A Well-Deserved Reputation Survives
After Cooke died soul artists Otis Redding , Al Green , and Solomon Burke , among others, picked up key parts of Cooke 's repertory, as did white performers, including the Animals and the Rolling Stones . Even the Supremes recorded a memorial album of his songs, which is now one of the most sought-after of their original recordings. Today Sam Cooke is also recognized as creating soul and cutting a path that many more great artists would soon follow.