Sam Cooke: Hits!

A close run thing: I feared we were in for a repeat of the dreaded missing-jigsaw-piece picture. I spent an hour looking for this CD, in vain. I got as far as asking Lucy if she might have borrowed it, dredging up an invented memory that she needed it because her singing class were doing Wonderful World (Wonderful World isn't even on the album). Then the next day, I found it more or less by accident. It wasn't next to the Otis Redding, Jimmy Scott and Roy Orbison albums, as I thought it would be; it was between Ray Charles and Robert Johnson instead. It just so happens that these two locations are five shelves apart. Why so far? Read David Weinberger's excellent Everything is Miscellaneous for an explanation.

I'll let you judge whether this makes my anxiety better or worse, but it's not the loss of a CD that worries me. After all, there's plenty of Sam Cooke music available on demand. No, it's the sense that my system has broken down that gives me the jitters.

Anyway, alarm over. What a wonderful collection of songs! Even without Wonderful World and You Send Me (Michael Hill's interesting sleevenotes don't shy away from this: "Due to legal restrictions we were not able to include some other key tracks that you may have wanted on this album." Thanks for owning up, even if it is buried in the small print inside the package.) You probably wouldn't predict this, but it there's a Michael Gray connection to this purchase as well, for it was during Spring 2002 that I tried to read Version 3 of his book — according to the bookmark, I got to page 98 out of 877; how about you? — and was struck by his praise of Sam Cooke. In one of the copious footnotes, he writes, "Most Sam Cooke work is of undimmed excellence: great records by a terrific songwriter, and a masterful singer of panache, integrity and expressive generosity."

So I snapped up this compilation for a fiver from Fopp six years ago, and agree with everything Michael Gray says about it.

MusicBrainz entry for this album Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in part at Last.fm

Comments

[Sam's Neph]

I'm just one of many Sam Cooke fans who share Michael Gray's synopsis of the legacy Sam left behind. He is truly a once-in-a-lifetime artist.

Erik Greene
Author, “Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story From His Family's Perspective”
www.OurUncleSam.com