Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke in studio, 1963. Photo by Frank Driggs.
23 articles
List of articles in the library
Behind The Scenes With J.W. Alexander
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 7 December 1973
J.W. is the man who took Sam Cooke from his gospel background and helped mould him into the very first Soul superstar. He performed a ...
Womack & Womack: Womack Inc. (U.K. Branch)
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Blues & Soul, 18 November 1986
Womack & Womack tell B&S about their future plans In America and Britain as residents ...
Lou Adler: Producer in the Groove at Picking Hit Records
Profile and Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 19 April 1967
LOU ADLER, one of the best known and most respected record producers, is a defier of stereotypes: ...
Take The Power Back: Black Artist-Owned Labels
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Red Bull Academy Magazine, 25 January 2016
At the height of their careers, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, George Clinton and Prince all formed their own imprints. Michael Gonzales tells the ...
Sam Cooke: When you're well-read and dress like wham!
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 20 October 1962
WE HAD the wireless on throughout. Sam Cooke wore red-patterned pyjamas, a black dressing-gown and a beaten gold ring, which he wears because he doesn't ...
Specialty Records: An Interview with Billy Vera
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, September 2021
As the Specialty label celebrates 75 years, Tony Burke talks to Billy Vera – singer, songwriter, and the author of Rip it Up: The Specialty ...
Sam Cooke: Pop singer shot dead
Report by Ivor Davis, Daily Express, 12 December 1964
Hotel Manageress Fires Three Shots After Girl-In-Chase Drama ...
Sam Cooke: Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 (RCA)
Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 2 June 1985
SAM COOKE — ALIVE AGAIN ...
Honey and Sandpaper: Sam Cooke's disciples
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1995
The deep and enduring influence of Mr Soul. ...
Sam Cooke's SAR Records: Two Desks, One Vision
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1995
SAR was Sam Cooke's dream of an R&B empire. It nearly came true. ...
Sam Cooke: Keep Movin' On (ABKCO)
Review by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 14 March 2002
THE TRAGIC DEATH of Sam Cooke remains one of rock and roll's great mysteries. Cooke was shot in the wee hours of December 10, 1964, ...
Peter Guralnick: Dream Boogie – The Triumph of Sam Cooke (Little, Brown)
Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 January 2006
SAM COOKE WAS the first black American pop superstar. By 1962, the year of his biggest British hit, 'Twistin' the Night Away', he was the ...
Behind the Scenes with Harold Battiste
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 9 July 1971
FREQUENTLY, we receive letters from readers' asking us to write about the people behind the scenes in our music. For example, the features we did ...
Sam Cooke: Soul and Inspiration
Retrospective by Lenny Kaye, Wondering Sound, 31 August 2010
Possessed of a purity of voice and an unerring sense of pop metaphysics, the incomparable Sam Cooke was a singer of soul and inspiration who ...
Report by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 19 December 1964
WITH THE DEATH of Sam Cooke in Hollywood last Friday, the RCA-Victor label lost one of its most consistent hit recording artistes. ...
Sam Cooke: Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964 (ABKCO Records)
Review by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, February 2011
MOST EVERY single time the 20th century's greatest singer-songwriters find themselves getting lionized or even litanized, it seems one towering figure is strangely, sorrowfully AWOL. ...
Sam Cooke: Sam Ploughed Money Into Act
Profile by uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 5 October 1962
SAM COOKE is currently one of America's hottest disc properties. Since he scored his first hit with 'You Send Me', Sam has had a pretty ...
Sam Cooke: Who Remembers Him Now?
Retrospective by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 19 August 1972
"NOT 'ALF Sam Cooke's been an influence on me," Rod Stewart was saying in his NME interview last week, adding that the inclusion of 'Twistin' ...
Sam Cooke: The Man And His Music
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 26 April 1986
I SUPPOSE any Sam Cooke record is a gift from God, even an LP which fundamentally belies its title in the way this album does. ...
Sam Cooke: Twistin' The Night Away
Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 7 August 1976
BETWEEN 1960 and 1963 more Twist albums hit the market than the total spinoff products from Elvis, The Beatles and Jaws. ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
SAM COOKE HAS always seemed, to me at least, the most underrated (or simply ignored – you don't really rate these people) of all the ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1995
FEW ENTERTAINERS have fallen quite so far from grace as Sam Cooke did when he died, 30 years ago, at the Hacienda Motel in south-central ...
Sam Cooke: Live at the Harlem Square Club
Review by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1997
MOST OF SAM Cooke's pop hits were sugary, blanched affairs. This album was the real deal, giving us the church-reared R&B singer who liked to ...
see also Soul Stirrers, The
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