I saw Aretha perform at a private birthday party (she did an entire set) in her very last years of performing. She was phenomenal then too.
I want to buy one or the other. Wonder if anyone can vouch for the EU '85 pressing or advise to hold off for a US original?
Sam was in the soundtrack of my junior-senior high school years, but when folk, Dylan, and The Beatles came along I lost track of him. A relatively new friend in my life mentioned how much he liked Sam Cooke so Mr. Cooke has recently returned to the soundtrack of my very senior years. The songs were still in me all those decades later.
Not an expert but Piero Mannucci, the engineer who cut the Italian pressing, is considered one hell of a cutting engineer. A search of the forum for his name should bring up some interesting information. Let us know which one you decide to buy and if you're happy with it!
If anyone is interested, I found the complete Shake LP in mono from oldschoolmusicjunkie on YouTube. So happy to have A Change is Gonna Come.
Did the channel owner swap the audio out because that track is in stereo. Ditto "Shake." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9S2Ct_10q0
I asked and he said the way it uploaded came out stereo, but was a mono recording. I’ve heard some really bad recordings and thought that sounded really nice. If anyone has a mono recording of change could they please upload it? Thanks!
Released September 2, Mel Carter's first album, When A Boy Falls In Love, is now available on CD (debut) and LP (reissue). Carter's album was produced by Sam Cooke and J.W. Alexander, and was originally issued on their Derby Records label in 1963. CD and digital releases include two bonus tracks ("When A Boy Falls In Love (Single Version)" and "So Wonderful (Single Version)"). Mel Carter - When A Boy Falls In Love
This cracks me up ! Not the Silver Beetles but the Brown Beetles, an all Black R&B group ?!!!!!! First time I've ever heard such a thing. That's GREAT !!!!! . I buy every different Sam Cooke cd I find that's reasonably priced. Always listening for variations and mono/stereo. Just found one with a few songs I hadn't previously had. The Unforgettable Sam Cooke, Canadian pressing cd from 1987 on RCA Special Products at Goodwill for 89 cents. Can't beat that with a stick!
Damn near giving them away. Double edged sword. It's sad that others completely devalue something in their world...but wonderful that I can pick up treasured items for a song that are just throwaways. US, strong coinage, but cashiers often take Canadian coins because they're so similar in appearance and size.
I asked the owner of a local record store if he had any Sam Cooke-he said that he didn't carry any-his clientele wouldn't buy it. Sad!
Picked up the Gold Standard 45 tonight of Wonderful World / Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha. Longtime Cooke fan. Just randomly ran across the gold standard 45 and for $3 and remembered the series from this thread being highly regarded.
Just came across this thread and thought I'd poke my head in the door. The lack of liner notes for the set was a very conscious choice to tell the story of Sam's transition from Gospel to R&B as a real-time experience with never-seen reproductions of historic documents rather than having a writer editorialize or contextualize it. The best example is the envelope containing the correspondence between Sam, the head of Specialty Records, and the Soul Stirrers. Reading those three letters in succession communicates everything so directly—Sam's intent to go pop with another label while hedging his bet by using a pseudonym, his label's insistence that he's under exclusive contract to them, and then the remaining Soul Stirrers begging the label to stop releasing Sam's pop records due to the damage its caused their career. The review of his first solo single from the time also adds some context to understand how "Dale Cook" was ambivalently received by the press and public. All-in, the goal was to put you in the moment before anyone outside of the gospel field knew or cared who Sam Cooke was, without the coloration of who he eventually became and the impact he had. Every decision was made with that intent—from the design to the song selection to the curation of the archival materials to the decision to split the recordings across 2 10-inch records rather than 2 12" LPs, and even to the printing techniques used (silk screening on clay-coated board to replicate the look, feel, and smell of the old boxing-card posters used to promote Soul Stirrers shows in the 50s. It was intended to be more of an art piece than a typical reissue in that sense, and an attempt to do something more immersive than another "never before in this order" compilation. Not sure most folks received it that way, but I'm proud of it nonetheless!
You should be. It's a beautiful set. The music is magic, but we knew that already. The design suits the music. Wonderful. One of my prized possessions. I'm not sure it was much appreciated because I still come across shops stocking it, but then it's a singular page in the life of a singer people seem to have forgot. Still the best voice of them all. Thank you!
Is there more unissued music that was not on this release? It is a treasure. I just wish more people knew that it had rare material. I once did an all day broadcast of the complete Sam Cooke recordings, at least those that were available in 1984, when I did the broadcast as a tribute to Sam.
Thank you! I think it got lost being a one-off Record Store Day release with no digital component. I'm hoping it eventually gets released on the streaming services, though since it was conceived as a physical experience I don't expect people would perceive it much differently than the collections of this era that are already online...
Thank you and I'm so glad the set connected with you! In the case of this release, there were 3 tracks that I wanted to include but had to be cut due to conflicts and ambiguities around the ownership of the rights. There is so much of his music that isn't in print, including the original single mixes of his RCA hits ("Good Times" in particular is a monster, with the Valentinos singing backup), and songwriting demos, which reveal an entirely different side of his art. I don't really have a definitive reason why that's the case, but the stuff I've heard is so overwhelming that it breaks my heart and boggles my mind that it's still locked away.
Is there a reason most of Sam's albums have never gotten a proper CD release? Looking through the Discogs pages a lot of them either have only Japan releases or weird reissues on random reissue labels. Why didn't RCA or ABKCO not do a proper reissue campaign? There are a few reissues under ABKCO ala the 2002 Stones DSD releases yet not the whole catalog and RCA doesn't seem to do much with it either
This set was released in 2011. https://www.discogs.com/release/3287420-Sam-Cooke-The-RCA-Albums-Collection