After meeting her old friends, The Grandma has returned at home to prepare new classes for this new course. Meanwhile she has been working, she has been listening to one of her favourite artists, Sam Cook, the American singer and songwriter who was killed on a day like today in 1964 and wrote incredible songs like A Change is Gonna Come, a hymn for Civil Rights.
Artists are eternal because art lives forever meanwhile people remember it. They are eternal brands.
Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931-December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur.
He was also influential as a composer and producer, and is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocals and significance in popular music.
Cooke was born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago with his family at an early age. He began singing as a child and joined the Soul Stirrers before going solo and scoring a string of hit songs including You Send Me, A Change Is Gonna Come, Cupid, Wonderful World, Chain Gang, Twistin' the Night Away, and Bring It On Home to Me.
In 1964, Cooke was shot and killed by the manager of a motel in Los Angeles. After an inquest and investigation, the courts ruled Cooke's death to be a justifiable homicide; his family has since questioned the circumstances of his death.
More information: PAM
Cooke's pioneering 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. 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.
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). He was the fifth of eight children of the Rev. Charles Cook, a minister in the Church of Christ (Holiness), and his wife, Annie Mae. One of his younger brothers, L.C. (1932–2017), later became a member of the doo-wop band Johnny Keyes and the Magnificents.
The family moved to Chicago in 1933.
Cook attended Doolittle Elementary and Wendell Phillips Academy High
School in Chicago, the same school that Nat King Cole had attended a
few years earlier.
Sam Cooke began his career with his siblings in a group called the Singing Children when he was six years old. He 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. During this time, Cooke befriended fellow gospel singer and neighbor Lou Rawls, who sang in a rival gospel group.
In 1950, Cooke replaced gospel tenor R. H. Harris as lead singer of the gospel group the Soul Stirrers, founded by Harris, who had signed with Specialty Records on behalf of the group.
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 his biggest selling albums.
Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the Civil Rights Movement.
More information: Chicago Tribune
Cooke was killed at the age of 33 on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel, in Los Angeles, California. Answering separate reports of a shooting and a kidnapping at the motel, police found Cooke's corpse. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, which was later determined to have pierced his heart. The motel's manager, Bertha Franklin, claimed to have shot him in her defense. Her account was immediately disputed by Cooke's acquaintances, none of whom were present at Cooke's killing.
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.
Afterward, his body was flown back to Los Angeles for a second service, at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church on December 19, which included a much-heralded performance of The Angels Keep Watching Over Me by Ray Charles, who stood in for grief-stricken Bessie Griffin. Cooke was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Two singles and an album were released in the month after his 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. 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.
More information: WBEZ
Aretha Franklin
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