#307 Sam Cooke, 'Portrait of a Legend' (2003)

Previously #107

Spanning a 13 year period, this collection of music is generally considered to be the most complete and comprehensive collection of Sam Cooke’s music. From his roots as a gospel singer to the new genre that would come to be known as Soul, this collection covers it all. After listening to this record in the last countdown, I immediately bought it on vinyl. That speaks volumes about how I feel about this. Unfortunately, at the point I got to this album this time around, I wasn’t home, otherwise I would have fired up the turntable and given this a spin. This music deserves to be listened to in high fidelity.

There are just so many defining hits on this compilation; ‘You Send Me,’ ‘(What A) Wonderful World,’ ‘Chain Gang,’ ‘Bring It On Home To Me,’ ‘Twistin’ The Night Away,’ ‘Another Saturday Night’ and too many others to list. The second last track is Sam Cooke’s magnum opus, and one of the most important protest songs of all time, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come.’ The song was inspired, amongst other things, by an incident in which Cooke and his entourage were turned away at the Holiday Inn in Shreveport, Louisiana. While things have progressed since the ‘60s, unfortunately this song is still relevant and poignant and there’s still a long way to go in terms of stamping out racism. Cooke was murdered in December 1964 at 33 years old by a motel manager in LA under suspicious circumstances. To this day, no one really knows what happened. This is a remarkable collection of music in such a short space of time and really is testament to Cooke’s talent. I might give this a spin on the turntable anyway.

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