Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke
Cooke in 1963
Background information
Birth name	Samuel Cook
Born	(1931-01-22)January 22, 1931[1][2] Clarksdale, Mississippi, U.S.
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	December 11, 1964(1964-12-11) (aged 33) Los Angeles, California, U.S.[3]
Genres	Soul R&B gospel
Occupations	Singer songwriter
Years active	1951–1964[4]
Labels	ABKCO Specialty Keen RCA

Samuel Cooke^[5] (January 22, 1931^[6]  – December 11, 1964)^[5] was an American singer and songwriter. 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.^[7] During his eight-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Pop Singles 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. Franklin was later convicted in 1979 when she was found guilty of second-degree murder following another similar shooting.^[8] The courts at the time of Cooke's death ruled in favor of Franklin saying his death was a justifiable homicide.^[9] His family as well as many fans from all over the world have since questioned the circumstances and lack of a proper investigation of his death. Forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht argued in 2017 that Cooke's death was not justifiable homicide.^[10] Cooke is included on Billboard's 2015 list of the 35 greatest R&B artists of all time.^[11][12]

Sam Cooke was born Samuel Cook in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1931 (he added the "e" to his last name in 1957 to signify a new start to his life).^[13][14] He was the fifth of eight children of Rev. Charles Cook, a Baptist minister in the Church of Christ (Holiness), and the former Annie Mae Carroll. One of his younger brothers, L.C. (1932–2017),^[15][16] later became a member of the doo-wop band Johnny Keyes and the Magnificents.^[17] Cooke was raised Baptist.^[18]

Cooke's family moved to Chicago in 1933.^[19] There, he attended Doolittle Elementary and Wendell Phillips Academy High School,^[20] the same school that Nat King Cole had attended a few years earlier. Cooke sang in the choir of his father's church and began his career with his siblings in a group called the Singing Children when he was six years old.^[21] Cooke first became known as lead singer with the Highway Q.C.'s when he was a teenager, having joined the group at the age of 14.^[22] During this time, Cooke befriended fellow gospel singer and neighbor Lou Rawls, who sang in a rival gospel group.^[23]

In 1950, Cooke replaced gospel tenor R. H. Harris as lead singer of his gospel group The Soul Stirrers, who had signed with Specialty Records on behalf of the group.^[24] Their first recording under Cooke's leadership was the song "Jesus Gave Me Water" in 1950. They also recorded the gospel songs "Peace in the Valley", "How Far Am I from Canaan?", "Jesus Paid the Debt" and "One More River", among many others, some of which he wrote.^[4] Cooke was often credited for bringing gospel music to the attention of a younger crowd of listeners, mainly girls who would rush to the stage when the Soul Stirrers hit the stage just to get a glimpse of him.^[25]

Cooke had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964, plus three more posthumously. Major hits like "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", "Another Saturday Night", and "Twistin' the Night Away" are some of his most popular songs. Twistin' the Night Away was one of Cooke's biggest selling albums.^[26] He was also among the first modern Black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. Cooke founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. Cooke also took an active part in the civil rights movement.^[27]

Sam Cooke's first pop/soul single was "Lovable" (1956), a remake of the gospel song "Wonderful". It was released under the alias "Dale Cook"^[28] in order not to alienate his gospel fan base; there was a considerable stigma against gospel singers performing secular music. However, it fooled no one^[9] — his unique and distinctive vocals were easily recognized. 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 singing Gershwin, he was quite upset. After an argument between Rupe and Blackwell, Cooke and Blackwell left the label.^[29]

"Lovable" was neither a hit nor a flop, but it indicated Cooke's future potential. While gospel was popular, Cooke saw that its fans were mostly limited to low-income, rural parts of the country, and he sought to branch out. Cooke later admitted that he got an endorsement for a career in pop music from the least likely man, his pastor father. Cooke stated: "My father told me it was not what I sang that was important, but that God gave me a voice and musical talent and the true use of His gift was to share it and make people happy." Taking the name "Sam Cooke", he sought a fresh start in pop.^{[citation needed]}

In 1957, Sam Cooke appeared on ABC's The Guy Mitchell Show. That same year, he signed with Keen Records. Cooke's first hit, "You Send Me", released as the B-side of "Summertime",^[28][30] spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart.^[31] The song also had mainstream success, spending three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.^[32] It elevated him from earning $200 a week to over $5,000 a week (equivalent to $54,000 in 2023).^[33][34]

In 1958, Cooke performed for the famed Cavalcade of Jazz concert produced by Leon Hefflin held at the Shrine Auditorium on August 3. The other headliners were Little Willie John, Ray Charles, Ernie Freeman, and Bo Rhambo. Sammy Davis Jr. was there to crown the winner of the Miss Cavalcade of Jazz beauty contest. The event featured the top four prominent disc jockeys of Los Angeles.^[13]

Cooke signed with the RCA Victor record label in January 1960, having been offered an advance of $100,000 (equivalent to $1 million in 2023)^[34] by the label's producers Hugo & Luigi.^[35][36] One of his first RCA Victor singles was "Chain Gang", which reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart.^[37] It was followed by more hits, including "Sad Mood",^[38] "Cupid",^[39] "Bring It On Home to Me" (with Lou Rawls on backing vocals),^[40] "Another Saturday Night",^[41] and "Twistin' the Night Away".^[42]

In 1961, Cooke started his own record label, SAR Records, with J. W. Alexander and his manager, Roy Crain.^[43] The label soon included the Simms Twins, the Valentinos (who were Bobby Womack and his brothers), Mel Carter and Johnnie Taylor. Cooke then created a publishing imprint and management firm named Kags.^[44]

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. Cooke was a prolific songwriter and wrote most of the songs he recorded. Cooke also had a hand in overseeing some of the song arrangements. In spite of releasing mostly singles, 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.^[45]

In 1963, Cooke signed a five-year contract for Allen Klein to manage Kags Music and SAR Records, and made him his manager. Klein negotiated a five-year deal (three years plus two option years) with RCA Victor in which a holding company, Tracey, Ltd, named after Cooke's daughter, owned by Klein and managed by J. W. Alexander, would produce and own Cooke's recordings. RCA Victor would get exclusive distribution rights in exchange for six percent royalty payments and payments for the recording sessions. For tax reasons, Cooke would receive preferred stock in Tracey instead of an initial cash advance of $100,000. He would receive cash advances of $100,000 for the next two years, followed by an additional $75,000 for each of the two option years if the deal went to term.^[46]

Cooke is widely considered one of the greatest singers and most accomplished vocalists of all time. His incredibly pure tenor voice was big, velvety and expansive, with an instantly recognizable tone. Cooke's pitch was remarkable, and his manner of singing was effortlessly soulful. Cooke could go as high as high C without losing purity or volume, and his upper mid-range was coated in a unique rasp. Cooke's vocal style was very adaptable, adopting a rather classical sound on jazz and pop songs while maintaining his trademark stylistic soulful hold on R&B, gospel and soul music.

Cooke's delivery encompassed a wide range of emotions including playful expressiveness to interact with listeners, mellow somberness as a form of reflection, and (in "A Change Is Gonna Come") profound soulfulness. When performing live, he would often play with notes and scales and experiment with melodies and his enunciation, while improvising entire songs. Cooke also began to perform highly charged versions of his songs later in his career.

Cooke's vocal exploits would go on to influence many acts like Otis Redding, James Brown, Rod Stewart, Johnny Nash, Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, Mick Jagger, Al Green, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Steve Perry, and Stevie Wonder among many others.

Cooke was married twice.^[47] His first marriage was to singer-dancer Dolores Elizabeth Milligan Cooke, who took the stage name "Dee Dee Mohawk" in 1953; they divorced in 1958.^[48][49] She was killed in an auto collision in Fresno, California, in 1959.^[50] Although Cooke and Dolores were divorced,^[51] he paid for his ex-wife's funeral expenses.^[48][47][13]

In 1958, Cooke married his second wife, Barbara Campbell (1935–2021), in Chicago.^[48][52] His father performed the ceremony.^[48] They had three children: Linda (b. 1953),^[53] Tracy (b. 1960), and Vincent (1961–1963), who drowned in the family swimming pool.^[47][54][48] Cooke also fathered at least three other children out of wedlock.^[55] In 1958, a woman in Philadelphia, Connie Bolling,^[13] claimed Cooke was the father of her son. Cooke paid her an estimated $5,000 settlement out of court.^[48]

In November 1958, Cooke was involved in a car accident en route from St. Louis to Greenville, Mississippi. His chauffeur Edward Cunningham was killed, while Cooke, guitarist Cliff White, and singer Lou Rawls were hospitalized.^[48]

Cooke was a central part of the civil rights movement, using his influence and popularity with the White and Black populations to fight for the cause. Cooke was friends with boxer Muhammad Ali, activist Malcolm X and football player Jim Brown, who together campaigned for racial equality.^[56]

Cooke was shot and killed on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel at 91st and South Figueroa streets in South Central Los Angeles. Answering separate reports of a shooting and a kidnapping at the motel, police found Cooke's body. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, which was later determined to have pierced his heart.^[57]

The motel's manager, Bertha Franklin, said she shot Cooke in self-defense. The LAPD at the time marked Cooke's death a justifiable homicide. Friends and family of Cooke disputed this and the police investigation into the events of the murder have been heavily criticized for various reasons. In more modern times critics have raised several concerns based on several elements that do not line up. Cooke had been shot with a .22 pistol, but the gun registered to Franklin was a .32. The bullet that passed through his body was taken into police evidence and then quickly went missing.^[12]

Cooke's autopsy revealed a 2-inch bump on his head. Franklin claimed that after she shot him, she dropped the gun and beat him with a wooden broom handle. Criticism has been raised that the gun still contained numerous bullets. Franklin's actions has been further scrutinized, critics have highlighted the illogical aspects of her reasoning, saying that if she had been truly frightened for her life, why would she have dropped the loaded gun she had just fired in favor of a stick? The woman appeared to have no marks or injuries when she testified before cameras five days after the murder occurred. This is surprising given the fight she described. Guests at the motel told police that they never heard any gunshots or sounds of an altercation.

The singer spent his last night alive enjoying dinner at Martoni's, a chic L.A. eatery and watering hole for Hollywood's musical elite. Cooke was joined by Al Schmitt, his close friend and longtime producer, and Schmitt's wife. Martinis flowed and Cooke wandered to the bar, where he chatted with industry friends and merrily waved around a wad of $5,000 cash — his take from a recent set of concert dates. Schmitt last saw him getting cozy with a woman he didn't recognize. She was 22-year-old Elisa Boyer.

Cooke and Schmitt made plans to meet up at a nightclub called PJ's later that night. "But Sam never showed up," Schmitt, 90, tells PEOPLE. "So I went home. I was told later he got there about 15 minutes later, just before closing time, and they wouldn't let him in. He was with this girl."

Cooke drove Boyer 15 miles south to the Hacienda Motel, where they checked in just after 2:35 a.m., signing the register as man and wife. The real Mrs. Cooke, Barbara Campbell — mother to his two children, Linda and Tracey — was elsewhere, no doubt familiar with his nocturnal excursions.

What happened at the hotel remains shrouded in mystery since Boyer's account is the only one that exists of what happened between her and Cooke that night, and it has long been called into question due to reports by diners at Martoni's Restaurant, where Cooke dined and drank earlier in the evening. These reports claimed Boyer seemed to be enjoying herself.^[12]

"I knew he was going to rape me," she told the police. According to her story, Cooke had disrobed and entered the bathroom, at which point she grabbed her clothes from a pile on the floor. In her confusion, Boyer says, she also picked up Cooke's clothes, which happened to contain his wallet and cash which she only picked up by mistake according to her. She ran down the street to a nearby phone booth and called the police, telling the dispatcher that she had been kidnapped by Sam Cooke.^[12]

Speaking in the 2017 documentary Lady You Shot Me, forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht argued that Cooke's death was not justifiable homicide because Cooke, wearing a sport coat and nothing else, "had no weapon and Franklin was not in fear of her life."

Most who knew the singer refused to accept the official story. To them, this violent and unreasonable behavior seemed so unlike the fundamentally gentle man they knew and loved. They believe that his death was a result of set up, claiming that Boyer was a prostitute working in cahoots with the motel manager to rob Cooke. The Hacienda Motel was a well-known hub for pimps and sex workers. Boyer, according to the theory, lured him there.

Critics of the Franklin account have also pointed out that Sam Cooke was not known to frequent places like the Hacienda motel and that it does not make any sense why he had went there if not lured. This argumentation goes on to question why Cooke would travel so far out of his way, passing plenty of other accommodations more befitting his superstar stature just to visit a small motel with a bad reputation.^[10]

The 2019 Netflix documentary ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke tells the story of night Sam Cooke was shot and points out that the murder is yet to be fully and thoroughly investigated. It explores the mystery behind the murder through interviews with family, friends, journalists and academics as well as archival footage.^[58]

Crime scene photos appear to show abrasions on Cooke's body. Singer Etta James, who viewed Cooke's body at his funeral, wrote in her memoir that Cooke's head was "practically disconnected from his shoulders. That's how badly he'd been beaten. His hands were broken and crushed…They tried to cover it up with makeup, but I could see massive bruises on his head. No woman with a broomstick could have inflicted that kind of beating against a strong, full-grown man." .^[59]

None of the injuries James reported seeing were mentioned in Cooke's autopsy report.^[10]

The discrepancies have led many to wonder if Cooke was killed elsewhere, by a third party, before his body was dumped at the Hacienda Motel. Rumors have swirled about the circumstances regarding Cooke's death.

Some blamed his business manager, Allen Klein, a notoriously ruthless music industry shark, claiming that he wanted to wrest control of Cooke's millions. Klein owned Tracey Ltd, which ultimately owned all rights to Cooke's recordings.^[60] However, no evidence supporting a criminal conspiracy has been presented. Since the LAPD did not fully investigate Cooke's death at the night of the murder finding potential evidence has proven difficult.^[61][62]

Much of the confusion surrounding Cooke's death stems from the fact that the LAPD conducted only a cursory investigation, giving many the impression that authorities wanted to sweep the matter under the rug.^{[63][64][65][10]}

Cooke's close friend Muhammad Ali said: "If Cooke had been Frank Sinatra, the Beatles or Ricky Nelson, the FBI would be investigating."^[66]

Sam Cooke's sister Agnes Cooke-Hoskins, still discounts the LAPD and Franklin account. 'My brother was first class all the way. He would not check into a $3-a-night motel; that wasn't his style', she said while attending a recent tribute to Cooke at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum^[67] I've always felt there was some sort of conspiracy there. ... I listened to the reports and I listened to the story of what happened and I can imagine Sam going after his pants. I can imagine Sam going up to the counter and saying 'Hey, somebody just took my pants.' And he's standing there, seeing the woman with his pants. I can imagine him saying 'Give me my pants.' But I can't imagine him attacking her. He wasn't that type of person to attack somebody. That wasn't his bag. He was a lover, OK. He wasn't a fighter. He wasn't a boxer. You never heard of Sam Cooke beating up his women.^[68] I would say within the community there is not a single person that believes that Sam Cooke died as he is said to have died: killed by a motel owner at a cheap motel in Los Angeles called the Hacienda which he had gone to with a prostitute named Elisa Boyer.^[68]

Ellen E Jones writes for the Guardian in 2019 saying " Cooke's courage also manifested in his approach to the music industry. He rejected the routine way that black artists were cheated out of royalties – described by one contributor as “like sharecropping” – and instead started his own publishing and recording company. The week before he died, he was planning to confront his business manager Allen Klein over some paperwork (Klein would go on to screw both the Beatles and the Stones in a similar fashion; The Dubious Dealings of Allen Klein is spin-off doc No 4). Could Cooke's willingness to stand up to powerful vested interests have been a factor in his murder? Back then, the LAPD felt Cooke's black life didn't matter enough to warrant a full investigation. This doc makes that clear, but goes no further. Which brings us to suggested spin-off No 5: Isn't it time some enterprising film-maker did a deep dive into Cooke's death? " ^[58]

The first funeral service for Cooke was held on December 18, 1964, at A. R. Leak Funeral Home in Chicago; 200,000 fans lined up for more than four city blocks to view his body.^[47][69]

Afterward, Cooke's body was flown back to Los Angeles for a second service, at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church on December 19,^[70] which included a much-heralded performance of "The Angels Keep Watching Over Me" by Ray Charles, who stood in for a grief-stricken Bessie Griffin. Cooke was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.^[47][71]

Two singles and an album were released in the month after Cooke's death. One of the singles, "Shake", reached the top ten of both the pop and R&B charts. The B-side, "A Change Is Gonna Come", is considered a classic protest song from the era of the civil rights movement.^[72] It was a Top 40 pop hit and a top 10 R&B hit. The album, also titled Shake, reached the number one spot for R&B albums.

Cooke's contributions to soul music contributed to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Billy Preston, and popularized the work of Otis Redding and James Brown.^[73][74][75] AllMusic biographer Bruce Eder wrote that Cooke was "the inventor of soul music", and possessed "an incredible natural singing voice and a smooth, effortless delivery that has never been surpassed."^[76]

Cooke was portrayed by Paul Mooney in The Buddy Holly Story, a 1978 American biographical film which tells the life story of rock musician Buddy Holly.

In the stage play One Night in Miami, first performed in 2013, Cooke was portrayed by Arinzé Kene. In the 2020 film adaptation, he is played by Leslie Odom Jr., who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal.

• In 1986, Cooke was inducted as a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[77]
• In 1987, Cooke was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.^[78]
• In 1989, Cooke was inducted a second time to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the Soul Stirrers were inducted.^[79]
• On February 1, 1994, Cooke received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the music industry, located on 7051 Hollywood Boulevard.^[80][81][82]
• Although Cooke never won a Grammy Award, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999,^[83] presented by Larry Blackmon of funk super-group Cameo.
• In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Cooke 16th on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".^[84][85]
• In 2008, Cooke was named the fourth "Greatest Singer of All Time" by Rolling Stone.^[86]
• In 2008, Cooke received the first plaque on the Clarksdale Walk of Fame, located at the New Roxy theater.^[87]
• In 2009, Cooke was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Clarksdale.^[88]
• In June 2011, the city of Chicago renamed a portion of East 36th Street near Cottage Grove Avenue as the honorary "Sam Cooke Way" to remember the singer near a corner where he hung out and sang as a teenager. Many of his family was also in attendance, as many of them are living in the Chicago area.^[89]
• In 2013, Cooke was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, at Cleveland State University.^[90] The founder of the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, LaMont Robinson, said he was the greatest singer ever to sing.^[91]
• The words "A change is gonna come" from the Sam Cooke song of the same name are on a wall of the Contemplative Court, a space for reflection in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture; the museum opened in 2016.^[92]
• Cooke is inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.^[93]
• In 2020, Dion released a song and music video as a tribute to Cooke called "Song for Sam Cooke (Here in America)" (featuring Paul Simon) from his album Blues with Friends. American Songwriter magazine honored "Song for Sam Cooke" as the "Greatest of the Great 2020 Songs".^[94]
• In 2023, Cooke was named the third "Greatest Singer of All Time" by Rolling Stone.^[95]

• Sam Cooke (1958)
• Encore (1958)
• Tribute to the Lady (1959)
• Cooke's Tour (1960)
• Hits of the 50's (1960)
• Swing Low (1961)
• My Kind of Blues (1961)
• Twistin' the Night Away (1962)
• Mr. Soul (1963)
• Night Beat (1963)
• Ain't That Good News (1964)

• Guralnick, Peter (2005). Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-37794-5.
• Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story from His Family's Perspective by Erik Greene (2005) ISBN 1-4120-6498-8
• You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke by Daniel Wolff, S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum (1995) ISBN 0-688-12403-8
• One More River to Cross: The Redemption of Sam Cooke by B. G. Rhule (2012) ISBN 978-1-4675-2856-6
• Burford, Mark (2012). "Sam Cooke as Pop Album Artist—A Reinvention in Three Songs". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 65 (1): 113–178. doi:10.1525/jams.2012.65.1.113. JSTOR 10.1525/jams.2012.65.1.113.

• Sam Cooke (ABKCO Homepage)
• Sam Cooke at AllMusic
• Sam Cooke at IMDb
• Rosco Gordon interview at the Wayback Machine (archived November 14, 2007)
• "Black Elvis" by The Village Voice
• "Sam Cooke". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.