Cooke, Sam (Samuel Cook)
1931-1964 · Contribution: 1950-1964
Became known as the “King of Soul” and “inventor of soul music,” crossing over from gospel stardom with the Soul Stirrers to a thirteen-year run of pop hits including “You Send Me” and “Chain Gang,” and composed “A Change Is Gonna Come,” later ranked the No. 1 protest song of all time by Rolling Stone
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Impact on the world
As lead singer of the gospel group the Soul Stirrers beginning in 1950, Cooke became one of gospel music's biggest stars before crossing into secular music in 1957, a controversial move at the time that produced his first number-one hit, “You Send Me,” which knocked Elvis Presley's “Jailhouse Rock” from the top of the charts. A shrewd businessman as well as a singer, Cooke founded his own record label, SAR Records, and publishing company, Kags Music, becoming a model for Black artists' ownership of their own creative and financial futures at a time when that was exceedingly rare in the recording industry. Moved by Bob Dylan's “Blowin' in the Wind” and his own experience being turned away from a segregated hotel, Cooke wrote “A Change Is Gonna Come” in 1963; released after his death, it became one of the defining anthems of the civil rights movement and was later added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. Cooke was a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's inaugural 1986 class and was inducted a second time in 1989 alongside the Soul Stirrers.
Life & background
Born Samuel Cook on January 22, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and raised in Chicago as the son of a Baptist minister, Cooke joined the Soul Stirrers gospel group at age 19 in 1950 before launching his solo pop career in 1957. He was shot and killed under disputed circumstances at a Los Angeles motel on December 11, 1964, at age 33.
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica; Songwriters Hall of Fame
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