Sam Cooke Born: The Voice That Invented Soul

Sam Cooke moved from gospel to pop music and the gospel world treated it as apostasy. Born on January 22, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and raised in Chicago, Cooke was the son of a Baptist minister. He became the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers at 19, the most celebrated gospel group in America. His voice was smooth, effortless, and immediately recognizable. When he crossed over to secular music in 1957 with "You Send Me," it went to number one on the Billboard chart. Gospel fans who had worshipped him felt betrayed. He had left God's music for the devil's. Cooke responded by building a career that changed the trajectory of American popular music. He was one of the first Black artists to own his own record label and publishing company, SAR Records, retaining control of his master recordings at a time when most artists signed away everything. His business acumen was as exceptional as his voice. "A Change Is Gonna Come" was written after a specific incident: Cooke and his entourage were turned away from a Holiday Inn in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1963 because of their race. The song, released in 1964, became an anthem of the civil rights movement, with a sweeping orchestral arrangement that conveyed both exhaustion and hope. He recorded it in a single session. He was shot and killed in Los Angeles on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel. The circumstances remain disputed. The woman who shot him, Bertha Franklin, the motel manager, claimed self-defense. Franklin was never charged. Cooke was 33. In a recording career of just seven years in secular music, he produced a body of work that influenced Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and virtually every soul singer who followed.