Considered to be a pioneer in soul music, Sam Cooke is a chart topping success. While he lived a short life, with a death that caused a lot of controversy years after the fact he always will be remembered for his enormous talent.

Sam Cooke

"It was something I enjoyed doing and decided to give it a couple years, though I'm not making a lot of money now either!"

Considered to be a pioneer in soul music, Sam Cooke is a chart topping success. While he lived a short life, with a death that caused a lot of controversy years after the fact he always will be remembered for his enormous talent.

Religious Influence

Sam Cooke was born in January of 1931. He was one of seven kids and his father was a Baptist minister in Clarksdale Mississippi. When he was just two years old, his family moved to Chicago. He sang with his brothers and sisters in a gospel group. They called themselves The Singing Children. He got his first real gig as Highway QC's lead singer as a teenager. Following this, he took over the spot of the gospel tenor R.H. Harris for the group The Soul Stirrers. With him by their side they were able to get a record deal with Specialty Records. With this they were able to see three hits.

Crossover

He decided that he was ready to go over to secular music and see what he could do with it. He changed his name to Dale Cook so that he would not upset his gospel fans. Because he had such a unique and distinct voice it was not long before people made the connection. The head of the record label he had been at with the Soul Stirrers gave him his blessing to do this new type of music under his old name. Unfortunately, he was not fond of the type of music that Sam was doing. It was not long before he left the label due to irreconcilable differences.

1957, he signed with Keen Records after appearing on The Guy Mitchell Show. He was able to spend six weeks at #1 on the R&B Charts with his first single You Send Me. He also saw three weeks at #1 on the pop charts.

He founded his own record label SAR in 1961. He was able to get some pretty big names on board with his label. Johnnie Taylor, The Valentinos and Bobby Womack name a few of the names on board. He then made a publishing imprint as well as a managing firm. It was at this time that he left Keen and signed with RCA Victor. His first single with this label was Chain Gang. It went all the way to #2 on the pop charts. He was able to follow this success with two more singles, Twistin' the Night Away and Another Saturday Night.

Most of his energy was spent on singles. This was the best way to make money as an R&B artist during these times. In his entire career he was able to see twenty nine top forty hits. He had a total of eight albums, coming before and after his death.

Death

In December of 1964, at the age of 33, Sam Cooke was shot to death. This took place at the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California. The woman that shot him, Bertha Franklin claimed that it was in self defense. His body was found in the apartment office, wearing only a sports coat and shoes. The shooting was declared a justifiable homicide.

Officially, according to police records he had checked in early in the evening. It was later in the evening that Bertha Franklin claimed that he then broke into the manager's office wearing only a shoe and a sports coat. Reports say that he was in a rage when he busted in. He continuously demanded to know the whereabouts of the woman he was with when he had checked in. He did not believe Bertha Franklin when she told him she did not know. She claims that he became violent with her and grabbed her. It was not long after this that she grabbed her gun and shot in self defense. He was shot in the torso and went for one more charge at her. She then beat him with a broom stick until he died.

Elisa Boyer was the woman that was with him when he had checked in. According to her he had tried to kidnap and rape her. She had escaped and accidently grabbed his clothes as well as hers in her rush to leave. Reports later showed that he had money that was never recovered and Boyer was later arrested for prostitution. However, both Elisa and Bertha passed their lie detector tests.

His family, friends and supporters believed there was a conspiracy surrounding the death of Sam Cooke. Because there was no solid evidence that could support otherwise, the case was closed and both women walked free.

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