Sam cooke biography quit school

Sam Cooke biography. Songwriter and performer Sam Cooke was one of the most popular and influential black singers to emerge in the late '50s, successfully to synthesize a blend of gospel music and secular themes and provided the early foundation of soul music. Cooke's pure, clear vocals were widely imitated, and his suave, sophisticated image set the style of soul crooners for the next decade.

By age nine Sam, with his two sisters, formed a gospel trio the Singing Children. As a teenager, he was a member of the nationally famous Highway Q. It was here that they sang with all the leading gospel groups of the day when they passed through Chicago.

Sam cooke age

It was also where J. Alexander, tenor and manager of the Pilgrim Travelers , first saw the young Cooke. The Pilgrim Travelers were the second gospel group recorded by Specialty and Alexander soon became the label's chief gospel scout. In he brought the Soul Stirrers to Specialty. Robinson spoke up for the young Cooke and in , at the age of nineteen, he became lead vocalist of the Soul Stirrers, with whom he toured and recorded for six years.

Muhammad ali on sam cooke death

Cooke soon became a gospel superstar. With the times changing soon Alexander was pressuring Rupe to let Cooke issue records in the popular field. Constraints against gospel performers performing secular material were strong and woven deep into the fabric of the black community. However, the monetary and worldly rewards for singing gospel could never equal those for singing to the masses.

Cooke gave in and recorded "Lovable" under the name Dale Cook. Cooke sang his new songs with the same conviction he had brought to gospel music.