Week 53: SAM COOKE (420 to 30: A Music Retrospective)
One of the most gifted, charismatic singers of all time, Sam Cooke was also an incredible songwriter and his soulful style and passionate, inventive re-workings of the classics made him the father of a whole genre of music to follow, fittingly referred to as "soul." At the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, Sam Cooke was murdered, but his music lived on, carrying messages that helped carry the movement. Between 1957 and 1964, he was one of the most prolific musicians in the world, and deep-diving into his catalog of songs and albums is something I recommend to anyone.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 7 of my favorites from Sam Cooke.
Week 53: SAM COOKE
#366/420 - Sam Cooke, “Cupid”
Like drifting on a cloud. This song has been redone many times, but the original, both performed and written by Sam Cooke, easily remains my favorite version. It was not common for singers to write their own hits at this time, but Sam Cooke had talent enough to break convention with songs like this. The vocal delivery is great, and embellishments like the swish of an arrow on “straight to my lover’s heart” really make the song.
A yet unproduced series I have written entitled “The Wing Man”, should it ever come to fruition, needs this track as a theme song. You really can’t do better than this.
#367/420 - Sam Cooke, “Summertime”
With over 25,000 recordings of this song, this truly is a song that has been done again and again. While I haven’t heard them all, naturally, my favorite of those I have is definitely the Sam Cooke (album) rendition. It strikes just the right feeling with accents that strike like a match on a matchbox. “Summertime, and the living is easy.” Even the humming is sublime here, no easy feat. It has a dark edge to its instrumentation with its bass tones, but the result is no less relaxing, bringing out the deep greens, dark streams, and heavy beams of summer, instead the typical emphasis on bright, sunny feelings.
It’s a song that’s been done thousands of time over for a reason, but Sam Cooke’s touch makes it a particularly special one for me that I can play again and again, Sam.
#368/420 - Sam Cooke, “Tennessee Waltz”
Originally a country music hit from the 1940s by Patti Page (which long-held the record as the biggest selling song in Japan—where I am currently), Sam Cooke stepped it up into double time and injected a lot of soul to make it into one of his most upbeat, fun songs he ever recorded. The horn section begs you to get up and dance, and Sam’s vocals are as impressive as ever.
This would be his final album and I believe it is his best, and definitely my favorite. The production and quality of writing and recording are so good here. It is such a tragedy for so many reasons that he was taken away so soon, but his influence on popular music and other soul musicians to come make for a legacy that long outlasts his lifetime.
#369/420 - Sam Cooke, “Wonderful World”
The collaboration I never knew I wanted but so glad we got: this all-time classic was a joint writing effort between Sam Cooke and the very Herb Alpert of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, with his writing partner Lou Adler. It’s a song that has permeated the cracks of pop culture many times over the decades for good reason. Its instrumentation is sweeping, light, and pleasant, and its lyrics are innocent, clever, and sung smoothly, sharply, and succinctly by Sam.
The song of a simple man who is simply in love is one that many of us can relate to, and these simply relatable words are ones that transcend the time and place where they originated.
#370/420 - Sam Cooke, “(Ain’t That) Good News”
This is a song that really brings me joy. The titular track from Sam Cooke’s final album is one of his snappiest and happiest. Although I have never been in the exact situation described by the protagonist in this song, the music, lyrics, and performance of it all take me there with all the authenticity I can imagine from every similar situation or emotion I’ve ever experienced. You can hear Sam smiling as he sings. The energetic, happy-go-lucky guitar playing is like butterflies dancing in your stomach. The rattles and shakes are like excitedly tapping toes under pockets of loose change and the horns lead the parade of it all. It feels like an impromptu jubilee at first sound of that good news.
On an album with plenty of tracks worthy of taking the title, it is fitting this is the one chosen, as it lifts everything else up with its hopefulness, cheer, and love. “Disconnect! My telephone…” and “man, ain’t that news.”
#371/420 - Sam Cooke, “Bring It on Home to Me”
A top song for me out of all songs there are, this is a really good one, simple, but everything it needs to be, with oh so much soul from vocals by not one, but two legends in Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls, backing him up. This song is like a precursor to so many styles of music to come, besides the obvious influence on future soul music, R&B, and even rock music, you can almost hear Run-DMC or the Beastie Boys in the way Lou fills in with Sam’s vocals and their back and forth. Although it quickly became common in the 60s and today for singers to back themselves up, which is of course impressive in its own right, it is so cool to have the low tones of Lou Rawls alongside the smooth tenor of Sam Cooke, two distinct voices in the mix. They are inimitable together.
And believe me, I tried. I just did karaoke here in Japan and eventually got bold enough to give this one a crack, and, while very fun, crack indeed I did on those high notes. I am better sticking to Lou’s part on this one, but no love lost for one of my all-time favorites. I can still sing along fine when I have their voices in the track to drown mine out! It's a great song and you can hear them having fun in the recording as well.
That ain’t all, that ain’t all I’ll do for you.
Oh, bring it to me, bring your sweet lovin’.
Bring it on home to me. Yeah.”
#372/420 - Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come”
From the opening notes, you know this is going to be a special song. This is a beautiful, profound, and exceptional composition, Sam Cooke’s best in my opinion, and my favorite. The instrumentation is emotional, and the singing is uplifting, sincere, and basically perfect. I love the words to this song from the very first line.
Oh, and just like the river, I’ve been running ever since.”
That opening line is burned in my memory. There is so much said there with so little.
This was a meaningful and impactful piece during the Civil Rights era in the United States. More than any of his other songs, Sam Cooke pours out his emotions here in poetic form. It jumps between the specific and the universal. From “I go to the movie, and I go downtown. Somebody keep telling me, don’t hang around,” to “It’s been a long time coming but I know a change is gonna come. Oh, yes, it will.” Words that both bring us into his world and time, and timeless words that we can all relate and cling to.
I have heard stories from my grandfather when he was drafted into the military during the Korean-American War and was sent to the South in the 50s for training. There he first experienced segregation. Different bathrooms. Different drinking fountains. Different bars. He couldn’t understand what made anyone any different based on their skin color. Sam Cooke expresses the other side of that here. “Go away,” people were told based on the color of their skin. This is still something real in many parts of the world, but significant progress has been made in the United States. A change was about to come, but Sam Cooke tragically would not live to see it.
These words stick with me like few others, knowing that he would be killed within a year of this song’s release. It was ruled as justified homicide, but was it? It is hard to believe knowing what we do today, but like many murders of high profile figures, especially from this era, we will never really know the full truth. Few people from this era who spoke out survived, but our world is a better place because they did, and voices like Sam Cooke’s live on to remind us of their story and their struggle.
Sam Cooke is another musician whom we can only dream of what more they might have accomplished had they lived to old age, especially when this is where he left off, but what he did record during his lifetime is some of the best soul music there is; songs that have inspired and influenced countless others. He was a great songwriter, but his voice I consider to be in an elite tier. He’s one of my four favorite singers of all time, at a level even the most talented among us can only hope to even come close to touching. An all-timer for sure.
Next, my favorite rap group, and the only artists in the countdown I have had the privilege of not only meeting, but working with in some small capacity. They changed the game in the ‘90s forever with amazing album production on cinematic levels in audio and did it all outside of the established system. Their group contains and contained some of the best rappers and lyricists of all time, their iconic W logo is known the world round, and they are most certainly nothing to fuck with. I am talking of course about the one and only, Wu-Tang Clan.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
Week 4: Weezer
Week 5: Bob Dylan
Week 6: Led Zeppelin
Week 7: 2Pac/Makaveli
Week 8: Billy Joel
Week 9: Electric Light Orchestra
Week 10: Elvis Presley
Week 11: Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
Week 12: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Week 13: Nirvana
Week 14: The Doors
Week 15: The Rolling Stones
Week 16: Gnarls Barkley
Week 17: Gábor Szabó
Week 18: Galaxie 500
Week 19: Simon & Garfunkel
Week 20: Gorillaz
Week 21: Ennio Morricone
Week 22: The Moody Blues
Week 23: Koji Kondo
Week 24: Rob Zombie/White Zombie
Week 25: Paul McCartney/Wings
Week 26: George Harrison
Week 27: Phil Spector
Week 28: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Week 29: Public Enemy
Week 30: The Love Language
Week 31: Barry White
Week 32: Frank Sinatra
Week 33: David Bowie
Week 34: Queen
Week 35: The Offspring
Week 36: Louis Prima
Week 37: The Notorious B.I.G.
Week 38: Nancy Sinatra
Week 39: Stevie Wonder
Week 40: Roger Miller
Week 41: Röyksopp
Week 42: N.W.A
Week 43: Sly and the Family Stone
Week 44: Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Week 45: Supertramp
Week 46: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Week 47: The Kinks
Week 48: Eminem
Week 49: Mort Garson
Week 50: Foster the People
Week 51: Pink Floyd
Week 52: David Wise
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)