Sam Cooke Essentials

Sam Cooke Essentials

Brought up singing in gospel groups, Sam Cooke helped define soul music in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s with tender ballads like “You Send Me” and “Wonderful World”, while his playful vocal curlicues became an unmistakable signature. His balance of delicate phrasing, smouldering romance and breezy charisma made Cooke as effective on lovestruck swooners like “Cupid” as on party-themed larks like “Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha”. For all that lightness, though, his own composition “A Change Is Gonna Come” emerged as a profound anthem of the civil rights movement after his death at age 33.

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