Classic Pop Icons » Sam Cooke

The Singer not the Song

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:30:37 +0000

Harley Payette asserts that the artistry of the pop singer is too often undervalued because of the importance placed on songwriting.

More than 35 years ago, Pete Townshend, one of the greatest songwriters of all time, wrote “It’s the singer not the song who makes the music move along.” Despite Townshend’s status as not only a great songwriter, but also one of rock music’s best critics, this is one little bit of his wisdom that did not stick despite its essential truth. Ever since the rock press was born in the mid-1960s, the songwriter has held sway as the ultimate figure in pop artistry. This is an assessment that ensures pop history is much less interesting and inclusive. This misguided perception has resulted in an occasionally topsy-turvy pop history and an elevation of the wrong artists, records, and aesthetics. Examining the songwriter can only take you so far when you’re evaluating pop music because pop music is primarily a performance and production medium.

Now, some fans have seen too many American Idol wannabes to fully drink this in, but if they analyze their own tastes and listening habits, and the history of pop music and its greatest song, there isn’t really another conclusion.

The Way We Hear Pop Music

Think about the way that you enjoy pop music. Most people consume pop music through recordings of their favorite artists. Even the most diehard adherent of the personal expression of pop songwriting would not buy the latest Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Amy Mann, Radiohead or Joni Mitchell compositions if they were just recorded by anybody. As hard as it may be to believe, it is imperative to hear the Radiohead catalog as performed by Radiohead. If the quality of songwriting were all these fans were after they would be satisfied to hear these songs by any competent singer (or in the case of Radiohead, an incompetent singer). If they were really serious, they would just purchase the sheet music whenever these artists come out with a new set of songs. So, it’s implied that even for the most hardcore fans of singer/songwriters, performance maintains a primary importance.

While sheet music was the way fans consumed pop music before the advent of recording technology, except for a few musicians, recordings are the choice today of most pop fans. (The cult of songwriting may even keep some musicians from playing the hits of their favorite writers because they perceive that playing another’s work as somehow inauthentic.) People buy recordings not songs. The radio is filled with the dominant hit versions of the latest popular songs, not dozens of versions of hit songs. More often than not, the key to our emotional response to any given piece is in the aural and emotional power of the sound and performance on a record and most of the time that is due to the performance and the production.

This is not meant to belittle the craft of songwriting. Great songwriting is an art and the works of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Bob Dylan and so many others are creations of a high order. Their best creations have a life of their own. However, great singing and producing are also arts, and that art is the most dominant form of expression in popular music. While the works of a Bob Dylan or Rodgers and Hart stand on their own, they often stand like a Stradivarius violin, as an instrument. A weak or ordinary player can make even a Stradivarius seem pedestrian. Yet, an extraordinary player can make a factory cookie cutter sing.

Hits and Flops

Often times, fans don’t really understand the way a popular song comes to life and makes its way into our lives. There is almost no such thing as a natural hit. Many of the best loved songs of all time sat around unsuccessful for often years, passed over from performer to performer. Many of the best known songs of the past five decades were remakes of unsuccessful or unexploited records. The list includes Nilsson’s “Without You” (originally recorded by Badfinger), Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” (originally by the Arrows), The Dave Clark Five’s “Over and Over” (Bobby Day), Dean Martin’s “Everybody Loves Somebody” (Frank Sinatra), Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” (Jackie DeShannon), George Harrison’s “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You” (James Ray), Elvis Presley’s “Burning Love” (Dennis Linde), Elvis’ “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame” (Del Shannon), Glenn Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” (Larry Weiss), The Drifters’ “On Broadway” (The Cookies), The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” (Richard Berry), Dion’s “Drip Drop” (The Drifters), Fats Domino’s “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday” (Bobby Mitchell), Natalie Cole’s “Pink Cadillac” (Bruce Springsteen), Lee Ann Rimes’ “Blue” (Bill Mack), Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” (Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes) and literally dozens upon dozens of others.

Then there is a large group of songs that met with limited success with one particular audience and then months or years later became much bigger hits with the pop audience. The list includes Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” from 1956, a three chart topper that three years before was an R&B hit for Big Mama Thornton; Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” from 1967, a 1965 R&B Top Ten and minor pop hit for Otis Redding in 1965; Dion’s “Ruby Baby”, a 1963 pop and R&B smash that the Drifters took into the R&B Top Ten in 1956; Whitney Houston’s mega smash “I Will Always Love You”, a remake of a then 18-year-old Dolly Parton’s Country Chart Topper.

In nearly all these recordings, the songs were resurrected to success or greater success by the performers. They believed in the songs. They used the songs for something they wanted to say and, in nearly every case, the new performers made radical adjustments to the composition to tailor it to their vision. Aretha’s “Respect” changes Redding’s tempo and instrumental attack and interpolates a lyrical improvisation on the finale that completely upends the song. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T/ Find out what it means to me.” His record is about a man who at least wants his wife to show him respect when he comes home from work even if she doesn’t show it elsewhere. Aretha’s is a near feminist anthem.

Aretha Franklin – “Respect”

Presley does a similar alteration to the Thornton song. He accelerates the tempo, incorporates lyrics from a second remake, eliminates lyrics from Thornton’s original, screams the lyric where Thornton used a traditional blue shout, and adds a loud distorted guitar, furious drum rolls, and a strident vocal harmony that make the record a noise more than a song.

Nilsson and Whitney Houston turned intimate pieces into arias. The star of Houston’s record in particular was her astounding vocal bombast. Carnes and her producer Val Carey slowed the tempo of “Bette Davis Eyes” and drowned the song in synthesizer riffs that made the lyrics, wryly ironic in Jackie DeShannon’s country rock original, seem ominous.

The Vision of the Performer

All of these records were tributes to the vision of the performer. His or her or their alterations made the song popular. They used the song to express something they felt strongly about even if it was in contrast with the writer’s original points.

The failure to understand this is one of the reasons that the performer does not get credit, particularly the singer. Many, many fans I’ve spoken to actually believe, as do some writers, that the great pop singers are merely glorified karaoke singers. Only in pop music do we assess greatness by multi-tasking. Multi-taskers or not, the best singers are the authors of their greatest moments.

All the greatest singers generally choose their own material. They are not empty vessels into which a song is being dumped. They don’t just make it seem pretty. The song is the vehicle they use to express themselves through singing. When they sing a song, the song often functions to highlight what they can say with their voices. When Aretha is laying herself out on something like “I Say a Little Prayer”, what matters is the sound and feeling of her singing. Listen to Dion turn the phrase “Here’s the moral of the story from a guy who knows” from “Runaround Sue” into a single mysterious word “heresthemoralofastoryfromaguywhoknows.” It’s not the words but the flow of words out of Dion’s mouth that matters.

A singer like Sinatra would ask for certain sections of songs to be re-written with a specific objective in mind. A prime example is his recording of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sinatra found one of the verses too bleak for the mood he wanted to create and commissioned a lighter rewrite.

Presley was famous for his tempo and mood changes. He also had no compunction about deviating from a song’s lyric sheet, usually shearing pieces off redundant lyrics or verses that contradicted with his vision. Further a Presley mumble or a Sinatra highlight could often add multiple meanings to a song in the same way that a Marlon Brando added depth to the lines he spoke in his movies. They can add or eliminate ambiguity. Many writers have noted that Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock”, for instance, hints at homosexuality because of the line about “Number 47 said to 3″/”You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see” as prison are not sexually integrated. Whether that was a mere concession by the song’s writers to then current market place where songs with a romantic angle played best, or a or a joke on that market, doesn’t matter because Presley performs the line with such ferocity. (Some of his phrasing actually obliterates a pure phonetic understanding of a lot of the song.) The thunder of his singing means you can blow right past any contradiction. By the same token, you can embrace it because the way Elvis sings “Jailhouse Rock” means all bets are off. Critic Dave Marsh said “For Elvis (at least during the fifties) every situation was charged with enormous sexual/musical energy, with little need to discriminate between one and the other.”

That’s the way the piece hits me. Presley makes the phrase “Let’s Rock” revolutionary advice. It’s an invitation to a world where anything can happen and sexual preference is only one of dozens of new choices open to us. When other singers sing it, it’s a standard party song. With Presley, it’s an invitation to anarchy or at least near limitless freedom. What the Sex Pistols needed to spell out in words with “Anarchy in the UK” Presley demonstrates with his singing.

Elvis Presley – “Jailhouse Rock”

Many great singers also control aspects other than their vocals. A singer like Sinatra would not only choose songs and commission songwriters to pen material, he would also choose conductors, producers and arrangers to help him achieve the vision he wanted to achieve. When he wasn’t getting what he wanted, he was known to conduct an orchestra himself.

Similarly, Presley was known to lead and direct his bands with body motions during his performances. Presley would also decide on the various elements that would be included on his recordings. Like Sinatra, Presley was not afraid to delegate. The Jordanaires, for instance, would generally work up their own backings. Whether or not that arrangement would appear on a Presley recording or whether the group itself would be used on a track was up to the singer.

The totality of the recording was the point, with the song as only one component. The sound made its own points. This is not a trivial elevation of style over substance. The idea that somehow sound does not have value is unique to the appreciation of pop music. This is mostly due to the unfair elevation of lyrics. Since Dylan, it’s been necessary for an artist to not only be a musician, but also a poet (not that most pop lyrics work as straight poetry). You have to make a lyrical statement. This has led to a lot of bad lyrics (in an attempt to obtain that significance) but it has also led to an appreciation of music out of tune with the rest of the art. Fans of classical music appreciate the pieces of the masters without the use of lyrics. Fans of free form jazz accept that the improvisations of the musicians are more important than any individual composition and that a horn player or guitarist can express themselves through the sounds created by his or her playing. This is not to make a one to one connection between these musical forms as there are differences in the overall aesthetics, but the lack of lyrics does not indicate a lack of depth in any of these forms.

The art of album making allows performers another opportunity to express themselves. When Sinatra made his series of great concept albums, he not only expressed himself through each individual song, but within the collection of songs and the order in which those songs were presented. The collection means as much or more as any individual performance and that collection would not exist in the way it does without the recording artist.

Many times songwriters work with producers and composers to create work that suits them. The songs are specifically designed for their talents and often in accord with their world views. For instance, Steve Binder, who produced Presley’s 1968 television comeback special, has often recalled the origin of Presley’s hit “If I Can Dream.” Presley and Binder were looking for a way to end the show. The two had discussed Elvis’ dismay over the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. Binder was struck by the conversation and ordered W. Earl Brown, a songwriter working on the show, to come up with a song incorporating Presley’s concern to use as the finale to the show. So even though Presley did not write the song, his viewpoint was expressed in its composition. This enabled him to run rough shod over some of the song’s hokier lyrics when he delivered it.

In a different type of example, when Dionne Warwick worked in collaboration with Hal David and Burt Bacharach they would often write specifically for her voice and range. They valued her opinion on composition and did their best to accommodate her desires just as she did her best to meet the challenges their melodies and lyrics would provide. Both men have stated on the record that their work with Warwick was a true collaboration. The records they made together bear the mark of all three personalities.

This is actually a very common situation in producer-performer partnerships. Even within a more producer dominant relationship like the Motown producers had, there were performers whose views and talents informed the writing. Many of the Four Tops records are lyrically and melodically darker than their Motown contemporaries. This is because of the deep baritone and melodramatic delivery of lead singer Levi Stubbs. Stubbs’ voice and the snap of his group’s harmonic arrangements, not only expanded the songwriting of Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier, but also provided the trio with additional inspiration as producers. The Four Tops records feature instrumentation- like the flute that opens “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)”- and effects that separate them from other Motown records of the mid-60s. Holland-Dozier-Holland’s brilliant work with the Supremes seems almost conventional in comparison.

The Four Tops – “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)”

Popular singers also get dismissed because, since many of them cannot read music, they learn songs by demonstration records. Those demonstration records are just used to let the singer learn the tune. The singers often stray from the arrangements, lyrics and phrasing of the demos. Even when they stay close to the demos, it’s a conscious decision because the demos are often done in their style. Even the demo reflects them. You can see this in the Presley session tapes. He is not merely aping the demos even when the finished version is close to the demo. In a case like “Viva Las Vegas” Presley tried something different only to eventually find his way back to the conception on the demo.

When a Presley, a Sinatra, a Franklin, a Warwick, etc. is featured at their best, they are amongst the deepest and most profound of popular artists. Their work is a lot more than glorified karaoke.

Producers and Collaborators

This piece has focused on singers, but it does not mean to exclude producers who often have an equal or greater influence on the sound of records. The best producers work in a manner akin to film directors with the song used as a script. They are astute in assessing the songs that will work with which artist. They often pick the bands and musicians that will play on the records. If they do not arrange the tracks themselves, they choose the arrangers. They decide what effects will be on the record, what instruments will appear.

This was the essence of Phil Spector’s vision. He took simple teen songs and gave them a symphonic grandeur by plying piles of instruments and the use of echo to create what he called a “wall of sound.” A track like “He’s a Rebel”, which he didn’t have a hand in writing, bears his mark just as much as “Be My Baby” which he did. You can tell a Phil Spector record instantly when you hear it on the radio.

Some dismiss rap producers as not creators because they often use pieces of existing records or “samples” to make their points. Sometimes, as in Puff Daddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You”, the process is basically just a song remake (in this case of the Police’s “Every Breath I Take”). However, in many cases where a producer hits on a good groove, the samples serve as additional instruments. At its best, in the hands of a Timbaland or a Dr. Dre or Jay Z, it can be the height of sound collage.

That the great producers often work in tandem with the great singers is one of the reasons that both parties see their work dismissed. As Marsh pointed out in his book “The Heart of Rock & Soul”, if most people are uncomfortable with the idea of performance as creation, they are equally uncomfortable with the idea of collaborative creation. People love their lone geniuses. But, to paraphrase Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston and later Rob Base and E-Z Rock, it often takes two (or more) to make things go right/it takes two to make it out of sight.

Not Always What They Seem to Be

If fans don’t understand the fact that a singer and or producer (who often work in tandem) are creators, they equally overestimate the mere act of composition. While to write at the level of Bob Dylan, or Cole Porter, or Lennon and McCartney is indeed an amazing achievement, the very act of creation of a pop song is not all that difficult. A song like the legendary “Land of 1000 Dances” consists of two chords (one as done by some artists), a repetitive but catchy chant, and a list of popular dances. It’s inspired but it’s not the roof of the Sistine Chapel here. Again, this is not to dismiss the difficulty of writing a good or a great song, but there’s nothing that especially makes the act of putting a lyric to a sketch of a melody especially impressive in and of itself. If Irving Berlin broke down “Louie Louie” he would be horrified at its crudity. The lyrics here were so unimportant in the Kingsmen release that singer Jack Ely just mumbled his way through certain passages because he didn’t even know the words. The record is immortal though because it contains a great riff (thanks to songwriter Richard Berry), a wild guitar solo and because of Ely’s mumbles. The obscurity of Ely’s phrasing makes the potentially mundane lyric seem provocative, or in the eyes of many politicians – obscene.

Many pop songs, especially rock and blues, are built around a few consistently used chord progressions. Composers often mildly modify one of these progressions and add a new lyric. This is why so many pop songs echo others. Listen to John Mellencamp’s
“R-O-C-K in the USA” and Neil Diamond’s “Thank the Lord for the Night Time”, or John Fogerty’s “Rock and Roll Girls” and the Rebels’ “Wild Weekend” for examples of what I mean.

Sometimes songwriters rewrite themselves. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil have commented that they never thought much of their piece “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration” because they thought it was a sideways repeat of their “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Yet, it was a #1 hit, and today it is one of the Righteous Brothers’ best loved songs. The reason for that is partly because even sideways “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” is quite a song, but mostly because of Bill Medley’s production and the Righteous Brothers’ powerful delivery.

The Righteous Brothers – “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration”

Some of the great Motown songs like “It’s the Same Old Song” simply flat out repeat a melody (“I Can’t Help Myself” in this case), with new lyrics. Again, production and performance make up the difference. Chuck Berry often did the same thing.

Additionally, many well known songs do not have any single author. They are melodies and lyrics passed down for generations and adapted and changed by singers and writers in each era. Many of the compositions attributed to Leadbelly were like this. This does not mean Leadbelly did not personalize these songs but he didn’t create them out of whole cloth.

A lot of well known pop, folk, blues and gospel songs are really re-workings of traditional themes, even though a pop performer’s name is on them. Ray Charles’ “Leave My Alone” is a barely disguised secular version of the traditional gospel number “Let That Liar Alone” recorded by the Carter Family and the Golden Gate Quartet, among others. Charles’ lyrics merely replace the religious references with secular ones. He even adheres closely to the original song’s rhyme scheme. The recording and many of Charles’ other forays into these waters – “I Got a Woman”, “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” and “This Little Girl of Mine”- remain triumphs. But, what is radical is not the composition; it’s interpretation. The blasphemy of transforming the Lord’s lyric into sin, the absolute heresy of using the same intensity of performance on both styles thereby firmly underlining the sexual connotations in intense gospel singing.

If some songs aren’t exactly the most original visions in the world, other songs are not meant to be entities in and of themselves. Many of the great performers and producers wrote songs or had songs written with the intent of slotting them into a particular performance style. Again, the recording was the goal and the song was but a small, but important piece. Roy Orbison and his early songwriting partner Joe Melson tailored their pieces specifically to Orbison’s vocal delivery and range. They wrote the song knowing how it would sound as an Orbison recording. This may be why, “Crying” aside, Orbison’s great ballads are so rarely covered or covered successfully.

On the other hand, a song tailored for performance can fool a lot of people, if it is seamlessly incorporated into the recording. Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” for instance is oft-covered. Most of the time, it comes off cutesy and strained. Critics wrongfully write it off as one of Cooke’s weaker pop tunes, almost a sell out because of this. However, the reason so many performers cover it is because its true beauty is evident only in Cooke’s original recording. The song is not meant to stand without Cooke’s gospel wail that makes the word “cry” an action not a word, a mournful and lovely French Horn and (Cooke protégés) the Simms’ Brothers emulating the sound of a moving arrow with their voices. The element of helplessness, only hinted at in the song’s lyric, floats to the top. In this context, a more mature lyric would be too harsh. The melody, which seems to bounce, a simple hum, in other versions, floats in this arrangement. Every element balances another. Cooke’s singing, the French Horn, and the strings create an atmosphere of mourning. The lightness of the lyric and the Simms Brothers’ vocal sound effect keep things from getting too dark. You have a simple catchy song with a novelty hook, a piece of commerce. As one element of a great recording, it’s a foundation of a work of art.

Sam Cooke – “Cupid”

That last point could apply to the majority of pop recordings and it is something that needs to be appreciated by the greater whole of the pop audience. As I wrote previously, I don’t mean to dismiss the work of songwriters especially the great ones. They contribute a unique and valuable independent art form. However, the best performers and producers have created similarly memorable art often out of a sow’s ear. What they do is just as difficult and arguably more important because it functions as the center of popular expression.

We’ve had decades of worshipping the songwriter as sole creator and look what’s it wrought us: Bad records by writers who can’t sing, bad songs by singers who can’t write, and in many circumstances bad music elevated over stuff a normal human being would appreciate. So, the next time some dope at work tries to tell you that Jon Bon Jovi is a greater artist than Dionne Warwick because he writes his own stuff, or that Warwick could never be the artist that Pink Floyd was, fight back with the arguments I made here.

Sources and references

Escott, Colin – liner notes to Orbison Bear Family CD set, 2001.
Guralnick, Peter. Careless Love: the Unmaking of Elvis Presley. New York: Little Brown and Company 1999.
Marsh, Dave. The Heart and Soul of Rock & Soul: the 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New York: Penguin Books 1989.

Song of the Week #29 – “Wonderful World”

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 06:16:33 +0000

Sam Cooke’s 1960 pop classic “Wonderful World” is this week’s Song of the Week.

“Wonderful World” was released on single in April 1960, backed with “Along the Navajo Trail.” It also appeared on the album “Wonderful World”, released in October 1960.

With its appealing arrangement, sublime vocal and targeted teen lyrics, “Wonderful World” hit big in the summer of 1960 and would be followed up shortly after by another perfect slice of pop, “Chain Gang.” Cooke had entered the most successful period of his career, which would sadly be cut short with his untimely death on December 11, 1964.

“Wonderful World” has been featured prominently in several movies, including “Breathless” (1983), “Hitch” (2005) and perhaps most famously “Witness” (1985). However, the classic barn scene in “Witness” featured Greg Chapman’s cover, not the Sam Cooke original.

Authorship

“Wonderful World” was written by Sam Cooke, Lou Adler, and Herb Alpert.

Recording date/location

“Wonderful World” was recorded on March 2, 1959 at Rex Productions in Los Angeles, CA. This was Cooke’s final session for Keen Records, who he had signed with in 1957. He moved from Keen to RCA.

Musicians

The following musicians appear on “Wonderful World”:

Sam Cooke – vocals
Cliff White – guitar
Adolphus Asbrook – bass
Ronald Selico – drums
Lou Rawls – backing vocals.

The song was arranged by René Hall, who worked extensively with Cooke as an arranger, conductor and guitarist.

Chart performance

“Wonderful World” peaked at number 12 in the US in June 1960. The same week saw the Everly Brothers’ “Cathy’s Clown” knocked off the top spot by Connie Francis’ “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool.”

This was Sam Cooke’s highest US chart placing since “You Send Me” hit number one for three weeks in 1957.

Cooke hit number 27 in the UK with “Wonderful World” in 1960 and number two when re-released in 1986 following its use in a Levi’s commercial. It also hit number one in the Netherlands in 1986.

Covers

Otis Redding – “Wonderful World”

Otis Redding recorded a cover of “Wonderful World” at Stax Studios, Memphis, in 1965. The classic Stax sound is in full evidence here, with a strong horn section and raw vocals from Otis. Redding featured the song on his album “Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul,” along with two other Sam Cooke covers – “A Change is Gonna Come” and “Shake.”

Art Garfunkel – “Wonderful World”

Art Garfunkel featured “Wonderful World” on his 1977 album “Watermark.” His easy listening cover featured some re-written lyrics and guest vocals by Paul Simon and James Taylor. The voices work well together, but the choice to have three men sharing vocal duties does detract somewhat from the one-to-one lyric.

Herman’s Hermits – “Wonderful World”

Herman’s Hermits had the greatest chart success with “Wonderful World”, reaching number four in the US and number seven in the UK in 1965. Peter Noone’s vocals are adequate, but lack Cooke’s finesse, and the speedier arrangement is less appealing than the original. It’s a good effort though and was apparently recorded as a tribute to Cooke who had died shortly before.

There will be a new Song of the Week on November 29.

“Wonderful World” is available on a number of Sam Cooke compilations, including the excellent single disc “Portrait of a Legend – 1951-1964″ and the four-disc “Sam Cooke: Man Who Invented Soul.”

Title

“Sam Cooke: Portrait of a Legend – 1951-1964 (CD)	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

“Sam Cooke: Man Who Invented Soul (4-CD set)	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

James Phelps dies aged 78

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:34:06 +0000

Gospel and R&B singer James Phelps died in Los Angeles on Tuesday from complications related to diabetes.

James Phelps was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on April 2, 1932. His early music career centred around gospel music. As a member of the groups the Holy Wonders and the Soul Stirrers he performed with Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke, respectively.

Phelps only big hit was “Love is a Five Letter Word” which he recorded with Clefs of Calvary in 1965, but he continued to tour and record for the rest of his life, performing with such soul legends as James Brown and Otis Redding.

Clefs of Calvary – “Love is a Five Letter Word”

Rest in peace James Phelps.

Song of the Week #10: “Cupid”

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:00:37 +0000

This week’s Song of the Week is “Cupid” by the legendary Sam Cooke.

Sam Cooke already had a string of hits behind him when he released “Cupid” in 1961 and was on his way to becoming RCA Records best selling artist after Elvis Presley.

Sam Cooke is one of several artists who successfully made the transition from being a gospel artist to making secular records. His breakthrough hit in 1956 was “You Send Me,” which hit number 1 in the US.

“Cupid” was one of a great run of records produced by Luigi Creatore, including “Twisting the Night Away,” “Bring It On Home to Me” and “Another Saturday Night.”

Recording date/location

“Cupid” was recorded on April 14, 1961 at RCA Hollywood Studio 1.

Authorship

“Cupid” was composed solely by Sam Cooke.

Musicians

The following musicians played on “Cupid”:

Joseph Gibbons – guitar/banjo
René Hall – guitar
Clifford Hils – bass
Earl Palmer – drums
Clifton White – guitar
The Simms Twins – backing vocals.

An orchestra was also present on the track, conducted by Horace Ott.

Chart performance

“Cupid” was released on May 16, 1961, backed with “Farewell My Darling.” The single hit number 17 on the US pop chart and number 7 on the UK singles chart, which made it Sam’s biggest hit to date in the UK.

Sam achieved a total of 29 top-40 hits on the US pop charts.

Covers

Johnny Nash – “Cupid”

A reggae-style cover of “Cupid” was released by American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash in 1969. His cover hit number 6 on the UK charts and number 39 in the US. His next hit would be the classic “I Can See Clearly Now” in 1972.

Amy Winehouse – “Cupid”

Amy Winehouse included a cover of “Cupid” on the deluxe edition of her hit album “Back to Black” in 2007. Her arrangement actually borrows more from Johnny Nash’s cover than the Cooke original.

Colin Meloy – “Cupid”

Lead singer of The Decemberists, Colin Meloy, featured “Cupid” on his 2008 EP “Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke.” Backing vocals are provided by Laura Gibson. Meloy opts for a simple, acoustic cover.

There will be a new Song of the Week on July 19.

“Cupid” features on a number of Sam Cooke compilations, including “Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964″ and the four disc box set “Man Who Invented Soul,” which are available from the following online retailers:

Title

“Sam Cooke: Portrait of a Legend – 1951-1964 (CD)	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

“Sam Cooke: Man Who Invented Soul (4-CD set)	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

Happy Easter from Classic Pop Icons

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:19:01 +0000

Happy Easter to all our readers. In keeping with the occasion, here’s a few great old gospel performances to enjoy.

Elvis Presley – “Milky White Way”

Mahalia Jackson – “In the Garden”

Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers – “He’s So Wonderful”

Judy Collins – “Amazing Grace”

Classic protest songs – paying homage to MLK

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:46:48 +0000

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on this day in 1968, so it’s a good time to reflect on some of the powerful songs that supported or were inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. I’ve selected some gems from some very diverse artists. Enjoy.

Sam Cooke – “A Change is Gonna Come”

Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” was released as a single in 1964, shortly after Cooke’s untimely death, and it became an anthem for the civil rights movement.

Cooke was reportedly inspired by Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and wanted to make his own statement about race. The first draft of the song was completed in May 1963. In October 1963, Cooke and his band were arrested for trying to register at a “whites only” hotel in Shreveport. It’s possible that this event spurred on Cooke to finish and record the song, which he did in December.

“A Change is Gonna Come” is one of Sam Cooke’s most powerful and intense vocals. This is far removed from the smooth pop delivery on Cupid or Wonderful World.

The song was recycled for the 2008 presidential election campaign and also covered by Seal that year.

Joan Baez – “We Shall Overcome”

The melody of “We Shall Overcome” had been around since the Civil War and the song went through various incarnations over the next 100 years.

“We Shall Overcome” was adapted by Pete Seeger in the 1940s, who was taught the song from Zilphia Horton of the Highlander Folk School. Seeger spread the song around over the next decade and in 1963 it was memorably recorded by Joan Baez and became a major civil rights anthem. It was recently covered by Bruce Springsteen on his 2006 album “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.”

Bob Dylan – “Blowin’ In the Wind”

When Dylan asked “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” he was addressing the issue of civil rights head on.

There are also popular versions of “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary.

James Brown – “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)”

James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” was one of the most important and popular “black power” anthems of the 1960s. It hit the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and was number one for weeks on the R&B chart.

An album of the same name was released in 1969.

The black power movement advocated a social order that was more militant than Martin Luther King envisaged and Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” became an anthem for this movement. The central “I’m Black and I’m Proud” lyric was a powerful one and the ‘call and response’ chant meant the song was tailor made for use in protest environments.

Brown later asserted that he recorded the song and included children in it so that “children who heard it could grow up feeling pride” and that the song was generally perceived as more militant and angry than he had intended.

Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On”

Three years after King’s death, Marvin Gaye tackled the themes of war, poverty, police brutality and inner-city despair in “What’s Going On”. This was the title track of his 1971 album of the same name and it made number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

The video features a live performance of “What’s Going On,” followed by “What’s Happening Brother.” The latter song was about a soldier returning from Vietnam and it also featured on the “What’s Going On” album.

Elvis Presley – “If I Can Dream”

Elvis Presley generally kept his political views to himself and stayed away from message songs, but he chose to end his 1968 television special with “If I Can Dream,” which is unquestionably a response to Martin Luther King’s assassination. King had been assassinated in Elvis’ home town of Memphis two months earlier and this reportedly upset the singer greatly.

“If I Can Dream” calls for a fairer, less violent and more equal world where “all my brothers walk hand in hand” and where “hope keeps shining on everyone.” It’s no accident that the lyrics and title echo King’s most famous and enduring “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963. Elvis sings with enormous passion on this. He meant every word.

Sam Cooke – profile of a soul legend

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:57:15 +0000

Harley Payette discusses soul legend Sam Cooke’s musical and cultural legacy.

When Bertha Franklin, a down and out motel manager and alleged madam, shot Sam Cooke to death on December 11, 1964, under still mysterious circumstances, the history of pop music was altered in ways we could never fully understand.

Cooke, a fully-fledged national recording star for nearly a decade, was reaching the peak of his gifts as a performer and songwriter at the time of his death. Additionally, his work as a businessmen and cultural visionary was starting to blossom with several up and coming acts on his independent record label about to hit the big time.

In 1964, Sam Cooke may have been the only man in America equally at home with Malcolm X and white talk show host Mike Douglas. The massive divide between those figures represents how much Cooke could have accomplished. At a time when black and white popular music was starting to splinter after a period of integration, Cooke could have brought it all back together, and theoretically, helped usher in a new era of overall integration. It’s not too far-fetched. Look at the attitude changes in the decade or so since hip hop has been the mainstream American taste. With Sam Cooke, though, there is no need to dwell on what might have been. He accomplished more in his 33-plus years than most people achieve in lifetimes more than twice as long.

Cooke was a preacher’s son who relocated from Mississippi to Chicago when he was just a boy. Despite being a middle child in a large brood, he was always gifted with a preternatural sense of self. Friends and family remember him laying out his ambitions at an astonishingly young age; ambitions that the cultural and political apartheid of the era did nothing to diminish. His main ambition since boyhood was to be a singer. As a child, Sam would sneak into local taverns and make spare change singing popular hits of the era. The young Cooke also possessed an intellectual curiosity that allowed him to develop a plan that would help him realize his ambitions and become a first rate songwriter.

Gospel was the music that offered Cooke his first opportunity. As a teenager, he formed his own group the Highway QCs, which eventually became successful enough to appear on concert bills with major gospel stars.

The QCs were heavily influenced by the Soul Stirrers, and it may have been that influence that prompted the Stirrers to consider Cooke as a replacement when R.H. Harris, their longtime leader, (temporarily) retired in 1951.

Sam Cooke and The Soul Stirrers

At first, gospel audiences were sceptical of Sam Cooke as leader of the Soul Stirrers. Some never did accept him as an equal to Harris, but a strange thing happened when the first single from the Cooke-led Stirrers (“Peace in the Valley”/ “Jesus Gave Me Water”) was released. It sold more than any Stirrers release to that point. The total was only about 65,000 copies, but that was huge in the tiny gospel world.

The success of Cooke’s record anticipated what would happen in the greater pop music scene half a decade later. A younger audience, responding to the jubilant tempo and personality of “Jesus Gave Me Water”, went and bought the record. They didn’t have the disposable income of what their white peers would have in a few years, but they had more than their parents and they made the young new singer a bigger hit, on record at least, than Harris had ever been.

Cooke was not content though to be just a star within the tiny confines of gospel. Despite driving audiences into ecstasy from coast to coast with his grainy tenor and wild on stage improvisations, Cooke started angling towards a pop career. While records like the agonizing “Touch the Hem of His Garment” showed that Cooke could testify as well as anyone in the business, only a few well placed words made records like “Wonderful” gospel. As Cooke pushed the gospel audience closer to an acceptance of pop, the success of Little Richard, Ray Charles and Elvis Presley showed that the secular audience had an appetite for gospel styled singing.

The owner of Cooke’s label Specialty, Art Rupe, opposed Cooke’s change to pop. He feared the singer would alienate his gospel base, who took their religion as seriously as they did their music. However, although Cooke was popular with the traditional gospel audience, he was more popular with their kids who did not have the same lines drawn in the sand, and Sam knew it. After an unsuccessful half-hearted experiment as Dale Cooke (a pseudonym that did not disguise Cooke’s singular singing style), Sam switched to Keen records, another independent. Using his own name, Cooke released an astoundingly simple tune called “You Send Me” that became a fabulous pop success, earning Cooke a gig on the prestigious Ed Sullivan show. In retrospect, save for Cooke’s trademark “whoa oh whoa ohs,” it was a pure pop record. Its fabulous success even quelled some of the concerns of critics of Cooke’s decision to leave gospel. This was one of their own who had made it.

Sam Cooke – “You Send Me”

As profitable as the new teen subculture was, Cooke was not content with that audience alone. He also wanted their parents. Being the biggest star in gospel or R&B wasn’t enough; he wanted to be the biggest star period. This was an amazing ambition for a black man in a country where blacks in the South were not even allowed to drink at the same water fountains as whites. The next few years were filled with traditional standards and appearances on shows like Arthur Murray’s Dance Party. Yet, despite a few hit records, Cooke was not able to achieve the kind of success he wanted. All his releases missed the Billboard Top Ten and an appearance at the prestigious Copacabana Club bombed.

In 1960, Cooke was successful enough that he was able to land a contract with RCA, then the most powerful label in the industry. At first, the RCA suits threatened to take him even further into the blandest reaches of pop. His first record there, “Teenage Sonata,” was a string-laden fiasco reminiscent of the lightweight material that Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka were recording at the time. According to Cooke biographer Daniel Wolff, Cooke got a chance to do things his way when his old label Keen released one of his old masters “Wonderful World” as a single. This was a real rock n’ roll record; it had an insistently strummed guitar, a strong beat and a clever lyric that matched young love with success in school. As Greil Marcus said, it sounded like it could have been written by Buddy Holly. It was Cooke’s biggest success since “You Send Me” and set the stage for an even bigger hit on RCA.

Jet Harris, Little Richard, Gene Vincent and Sam Cooke – Oct ’62

“Chain Gang” was also rock n’ roll despite Sam’s soothing tones and the presence of strings. There was the sound of clinking chains, a lyric that sympathized with the outsiders on a prison chain gang, and most significantly of all, a chorus chanting suggestively “Ugh, agh” over and over. The record made #2 on Billboard and set Sam Cooke on the final stage of his career.

Sam Cooke – “Chain Gang”

From 1961 to 1964, Cooke was RCA’s second most successful artist behind Elvis Presley, and one of the most successful artists in the business. The fabulous string of hit records he made – “Cupid,” “Twistin’ the Night Away,” “Havin’ a Party,” “Bring it On Home to Me,” “Another Saturday Night,” “Good Times,” “Shake,” and “A Change is Gonna Come,” among others – provided as effective a marriage between gospel and the teen pop market as his gospel songs. Some like “Bring it On Home to Me” went even further. It was probably the purest distillation of the gospel feeling in the Top 40 to that time. The move back actually provided Cooke with the mainstream success he so desired. He not only was a regular in the Top 40, but only a few months before his untimely death he even conquered the Copa. There was even talk of a break into movies. Unlike many performers of the first rock ‘n’ roll generation who saw their audiences diminish after the British Invasion, Cooke saw his expand.

Cooke not only consolidated his artistic vision in his final years, he expanded it. His 1963 album “Night Beat” was a masterful late night jazz/blues session, more Charles Brown than Ray Charles.

He also incorporated the new ground being broken by white performers like Bob Dylan, who directly inspired the protest classic “A Change is Gonna Come,” which is arguably Cooke’s finest composition.

Sam Cooke – “A Change is Gonna Come”

Also slated for a 1963 release, but abandoned, was “One Night Stand,” which was to provide a record of Cooke’s stunning live performance at Harlem Square Club in Miami, Florida. He had debuted the act at the Apollo in November 1962, and this was the set that he presented at the Harlem Square two months later. The show was finally released in 1985 as “Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963″ and has received great acclaim.

Sam was also a cultural pioneer in these final years. He started his own record label SAR. In addition to recording old favorites like R. H. Harris and a reconstituted Soul Stirrers, SAR also helped to midwife the careers of several future stars, including Bobby Womack, Billy Preston, and Johnnie Taylor. (Cooke was also a pivotal figure in the career of Lou Rawls.) The best SAR records, such as L.C. Cooke’s (Sam’s brother) “Put Me Down Easy” are amongst the most sublime pop-soul of the era.

That Sam Cooke had so much going for him at the time of his death makes “what ifs” even more natural with him than with other figures that passed away at a young age. Unlike Presley or Lennon, there was no question his gifts were peaking at his demise. Unlike Buddy Holly, there had been no commercial slump before his death. He really seemed poised for bigger and more revolutionary things.

That type of potential makes it easy to forget just how much Cooke did accomplish. His influence has been omnipresent since 1964. Think of Otis Redding, Rod Stewart, even Steve Perry. Think of the success of a Michael Jackson or a Prince. Or even think of a smaller moment like Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford’s tentative dance to “Wonderful World” in Witness.

It would be a different world, a lesser world, if he’d never been here.

Biographical sources:

You Send Me by Daniel Wolff, S.R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tennenbaum
Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick

The inspirational Sam Cooke

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:08:05 +0000

The great soul pioneer Sam Cooke died 45 years ago today. Sam Cooke possessed one of the finest soul voices of all time and has been a huge inspiration to countless artists.

Just last year, Sam Cooke’s civil rights anthem ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ was featured prominently during Barack Obama’s election campaign. Others have covered it, including Otis Redding and recently Seal, but none match the masterful delivery of Sam Cooke on the original. On this 45th anniversary of his death, take a few minutes to listen to this superb performance and remember why Sam was so revered among his peers and continues to delight fans to this day.