Sam Cooke
Published September 10, 2003
Rupe, who was white, was suspicious of the move to pop and wanted things heavier and less "white." Cooke threatened to quit. Rupe blamed his A&R man for Cooke's turn to pop, and it's always easier to fire the manager than a player, so Rupe fired Blackwell instead.
Somehow the session continued and "You Send Me" was recorded. The simple, lilting melody, dreamy arrangement, and Cooke's buttery, soulful vocals made "You Send Me" an instant classic. Bumps admitted that the song sounded kind of dumb to him at the time.
The argument resumed a week later as the men negotiated Blackwell's departure from the label. As the discussion turned ugly, they accused each other of not having ears for a hit. Rupe made Bumps an offer.
"Just forget what you got coming in royalties with Little Richard, and you take Sam. And you can have the masters." Bumps figured it was a $50,000 gamble. The divorce was signed June 17.
Bumps had been negotiating with a brand new label, Keen, since May. Along with Sam Cooke, whom he also managed, Bumps brought the gospel group Pilgrim Travelers and their young lead singer Lou Rawls with him to Keen.
Keen released "Summertime/You Send Me" in September 1957. "You Send Me" was an immediate hit at Dolphins Record shop, the R&B record shop in L.A. Next, sales took off in Chicago, Cooke's hometown. Casey Kasem helped break the song in Detroit. It rose to No. 3 in two weeks, hit No. 1 and eventually sold
1.7 million copies.
Blackwell then got carried away with Cooke's crossover potential. He had the singer record a collection of insipid ballads for his first album, and perform literally in tails for a disastrous Copacabana appearance with a full orchestra. After that, and an appearance at the first integrated show at the Southeastern Fairgrounds in Atlanta, Cooke made a decision.
"When the whites are through with Sammy Davis Jr., he won't have anywhere to play. I'll always be able to go back to my people cause I'm never gonna stop singing to them," Wolff quotes Cooke.
Cooke stopped straightening his hair and returned to the black nightclub circuit. Ironically, as his social consciousness became more black, Cooke became convinced that the only way for him to make it to the next level was to have a white manager. He had been stewing since the Copa affair, and in the fall of 1959, Cooke and Blackwell went to a restaurant in Santa Barbara where Cooke broke the news. They shook hands and departed as gentlemen.
- Sam Cooke
- Published: September 10, 2003
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- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Christian and Gospel, Music: Classic Rock and Oldies, Music: Pop, Music: Hip-hop
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Comments on this articleComments
I love Tom, but as an all time favorite, he's bit too eccentric for me.
yea, i can understand that...but then again, i'm also a big Beefheart fan...Bjork too.
i dunno, i guess i just gravitate toward weirdness.
I'd probably go for Howlin Wolf myself and yes, Beefheart rules the universe, but Tom Waites, singer? On the excellent "Wicked Grin" John Hammond Jr. sings Tom's songs and inside the liner Tom says, "Wow, I can finally understand the words." Hehe, what a card. Fabulous songwriter and a damn fine actor even.
I think Waits is a genius singer. And I think that John Hammond's "Wicked Grin" is just a great, great album that illuminates these Waits songs amazingly. So often on Tom's own great albums, it's hard to separate the songs from the performances. His singing is too iconoclastic and stylized on, say "Big Black Mariah," to realize that at its core, this is a very insistent, structured blues. Hammond approaches these songs in that spirit: They're not Tom Waits songs, but blues and folk songs.
Hammond sings and plays the hell out of these great songs, and the whole album has a kind of haunted, swampy sound. It's got Waits himself producing and much of the band from Bob Dylan's equally haunted, greasy "Time Out Of Mind" record.
Wicked Grin is also highly recommended as a Waits substitute in automotive situations when a riding companion forbids Tom's own "awful" "howling" "junkyard" albums.
My all-time favorite vocalist (at least at the moment I write this) is Jon Pousette-Dart.
Wait a sec.... maybe Billie Holiday.
Oh, heck! Perhaps I like Etta James best of all.
No, it's gotta be Aretha... yeah, that's it, Aretha!
But I forgot Janis! How could I forget Janis?
Then again, there's Lena Horne, and Satchmo, and Greg Lake, and I really like Muddy Waters...
Paul Butterfield had a gravelly growl that I always found enticing, and there was the obscure but excellent Nick Gravenites. But I'm forgetting the Stevie Winwood of the Traffic days.
Dang! I guess I'll just have to listen to a whole bunch of music over the weekend and get back to you on Monday. What a shame.
Jon Pousette-Dart!! That's a name from the past. I booked the Pousette-Dart band at my college in the '70s and they were amazing live, surprisingly powerful rhythm section, and his singing was strong and clear. Now I have to go back and listen to "Amnesia."
But no one has said a damn thing about poor old Sam.
Jon Pousette-Dart is still around, and still recording. His website (www.pousette-dart.com, believe it or not) has his bio, some downloads, lyrics to his best tunes (Yaicha, Listen to the Spirit, Amnesia, etc.) concert dates, and lots of cool stuff you (or at least I) didn't know.
My previous post was slightly in jest - I think that defining one's all-time favorite vocalist is as difficult a proposition as defining the top 100 guitarists of all time. That said, I'm listening to Blind Faith's Sea of Joy as I write this....
With the technology that has been in the recording industry it's pretty easy to dub, re-record over and cover up mistakes. Listen to Sam Cooke Live at the copa or anything live by Sam Cooke.
Regards
Jerry C Turner
I love Sam Cooke. His version of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess is perfection.
Thanks guys, my love for Sam applies to live, studio, pop, soul and gospel. He was incomparable.
Eric,I'm surprised you didn't mention
Sam's "Night Beat" LP.It's probably the
most self realized of all his work.That
is to say,the one he most wanted to do
and was happiest with.It's definitely
the bluesiest thing he ever recorded.
Sam was and still is the greatest singer of all time! And by the way, How many of you will be attending the Third annual tribute to Sam in Los Angeles Jan. 22 ,2005 ?
If your interested log on to the Sam Cooke Fan Club on Yahoo They are the ones putting it on . The first Two tributes were phenomenal!!!!
Thanks Greg, sounds great, love to be there.
For me sam cooke and marvin gaye are
my two all time favourite singers and if
I had to pick just one well by a very
slight edge it would be sam cooke.About
27 years ago I was given a demonstration
LP of undiscovered songs by sam cooke
and have only ever played it once or
twice so I will have to buy a record
deck to hear that velvet voice again.
thanks Frankie, there are a lot of similarities between Sam and Marvin, both among the very best. Rather than having to buy a turntable, if you know someone who has a truntable, they could tape it for you, or even go the digital route?
when i was little my dad used to sing me the chain gang song by sam cooke, but he would make the lyrics different so they would go along with me. This past year he developed brain cancer and is dying, but i just wanted to say that i will always remember my dad because of that song and i will always remember sam cooke.
Allyson;
Your dad had/has good taste, the "Chain Gang" is a classic and my favorite Sam Cooke song. I also used to sing that song to my daughter when she was little (she's 22 now). And I had almost as much fun a couple months ago when I got a chance to sing along with it to my dad when it came on the radio.
I am the producer of the Motown Forever Radio Show on WEBR and this weekend we are featuring a full show about Sam Cooke. I invite everyone to tune in via the internet at www.fcac.or and click on radio at 3:00pm on this upcoming Saturday. Also, please let everyone you know, know of the show. Feel free to contact the show at WEBRMotown at hotmail.com.
Thanks again.
Curtis
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i'd pick Tom Waits