Samuel Cooke (né Cook; January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American soul singer and songwriter. Considered one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the "King of Soul" for his distinctive vocals, pioneering contributions to the genre, and significance in popular music. During his thirteen-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as 20 singles in the Top 10 of Billboard's Black Singles chart. In 1964, he was shot and killed by the manager of a motel in Los Angeles. His family has since questioned the circumstances of his death.
In 2015, Cooke was ranked number 28 in Billboard magazine's list of the "35 Greatest R&B Artists of All Time" and number 3 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "200 Greatest Singers of All Time", behind only Whitney Houston (number 2) and Aretha Franklin (number 1).
Sam Cooke was born Samuel Cook in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1931 (he added the "e" to his last name in 1958 to signify a new start to his life). He was the fifth of eight children of Rev. Charles Cook, a Baptist minister, and the former Annie Mae Carroll. One of his younger brothers, L.C. (1932–2017), later became a member of the doo-wop band Johnny Keyes and the Magnificents. Cooke was raised Baptist.
Cooke's family moved to Chicago in 1933. There, he attended Doolittle Elementary and Wendell Phillips Academy High School, the same school that Nat King Cole had attended a few years earlier. Cooke sang in the choir of his father's church and began his career with his siblings in a group called the Singing Children when he was six years old. Cooke first became known as lead singer with the Highway Q.C.'s when he was a teenager, having joined the group at the age of 14. During this time, Cooke befriended fellow gospel singer and neighbor Lou Rawls, who sang in a rival gospel group.
In 1950, Cooke replaced gospel tenor R. H. Harris as lead singer of his gospel group The Soul Stirrers, who had signed with Specialty Records on behalf of the group.
Their first recording under Cooke's leadership was the song "Jesus Gave Me Water" in 1950. They also recorded the gospel songs "Peace in the Valley", "How Far Am I from Canaan?", "Jesus Paid the Debt" and "One More River", among many others, some of which he wrote.
Cooke was often credited for bringing gospel music to the attention of a younger crowd of listeners, mainly girls who would rush to the stage when the Soul Stirrers hit the stage just to get a glimpse of him.
Cooke formally left the Soul Stirrers in 1956 after deciding to pursue a secular career as a solo artist, prompting a backlash from the gospel community and religious leaders.
Prior to leaving the Soul Stirrers in 1956, Cooke recorded his first secular pop song, "Lovable", a remake of the gospel song "Wonderful", under the alias Dale Cook, in hopes of not getting discovered recording secular material because of the stigma against gospel singers performing pop music, which failed due to Cooke's instantly recognizable voice.
Art Rupe, head of Specialty Records, the label of the Soul Stirrers, gave his blessing for Cooke to record secular music under his real name, but he was unhappy about the type of music Cooke and producer Bumps Blackwell were making. Rupe expected Cooke's secular music to be similar to that of another Specialty Records artist, Little Richard. When Rupe walked in on a recording session and heard Cooke singing Gershwin, he was quite upset. After an argument between Rupe and Blackwell, Cooke and Blackwell left the label.
"Lovable" was neither a hit nor a flop, but it indicated Cooke's future potential. While gospel was popular, Cooke saw that its fans were mostly limited to low-income, rural parts of the country, and he sought to branch out. Cooke later admitted that he got an endorsement for a career in pop music from the least likely man, his pastor father. Cooke stated: "My father told me it was not what I sang that was important, but that God gave me a voice and musical talent and the true use of His gift was to share it and make people happy."
Upon branching into his solo career, Cooke added the e to his last name. In 1957, Cooke signed with Keen Records and released his first single, "You Send Me", which included the song ""Summertime" as its B-side. The song topped the Billboard R&B Best Sellers and Jockeys charts for six weeks between November 25 and December 30, 1957. On December 7, 1957, the song began a three-week tenure at number one on the Billboard Top 100. It elevated him from earning $200 a week to over $5,000 a week (equivalent to $57,000 in 2025). Cooke appeared on ABC's The Guy Mitchell Show and on November 3 of that year, Cooke made his first appearance performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, which became controversial when the live broadcast ran over time and the screen went black. Outraged viewers flooded the network with complaints, leading Ed Sullivan to re-book Cooke for December 1.
Specialty Records, wanting to take advantage of their former artist's commercial success, released the Cooke song, "I'll Come Running Back to You", which peaked at number seven on the R&B Best Sellers chart and topped the R&B Jockeys chart in January 1958. It peaked at number 18 on the Pop Best-Sellers chart the following month. Keen Records soon released Cooke's rendition of "I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)", which reached the top 20 on both the pop and R&B charts. Other early hits released during this era included "You Were Made for Me", "Lonely Island", "Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha" and "Only Sixteen".
Still a relatively new artist, Cooke wanted to branch further from the Chitlin' Circuit and in March 1958, just months after "You Send Me" topped the charts, Cooke booked two weeks at the Copacabana. However, Cooke later said he "bombed" during the residency with many in the audience not being familiar with the singer. Later that year, Cooke performed for the famed Cavalcade of Jazz concert produced by Leon Hefflin held at the Shrine Auditorium on August 3. The other headliners were Little Willie John, Ray Charles, Ernie Freeman, and Bo Rhambo. Sammy Davis Jr. was there to crown the winner of the Miss Cavalcade of Jazz beauty contest. The event featured the top four prominent disc jockeys of Los Angeles. By 1959, Cooke sought a new label and wanted to produce his own music, breaking away from Bumps Blackwell after a three-year partnership.
In January 1960, Cooke signed a lucrative deal with RCA Victor, having been offered an advance of $100,000 (equivalent to $1.1 million in 2025) by the label's producers Hugo & Luigi.
After his first RCA single, "Teenage Sonata", became a relative flop, Keen Records issued the Cooke-produced and co-written "Wonderful World", which reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Hot R&B Sides chart, which changed Cooke's musical direction. Soon after, Cooke released the song "Chain Gang", which peaked at number two on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B Sides charts and became his first UK top ten hit. Following this success, Cooke recorded several more hits such as "Cupid", "Twistin' the Night Away", "Bring It On Home to Me" (which featured Lou Rawls in the background), "Having a Party", "Nothing Can Change This Love", "Send Me Some Lovin'" and "Another Saturday Night". Cooke's 1962 album, Twistin' the Night Away, became one of his best selling albums.
During this period, Cooke launched his own record label SAR Records with J. W. Alexander and his manager, Roy Crain. The label soon included the Simms Twins, the Valentinos (who were Bobby Womack and his brothers), Mel Carter and Johnnie Taylor. Cooke then created a publishing imprint and management firm named Kags, which made Cooke among the first modern Black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career.
Like most R&B artists of his time, Cooke focused on singles. Cooke was a prolific songwriter and wrote most of the songs he recorded. Cooke also had a hand in overseeing some of the song arrangements. In spite of releasing mostly singles, he released a well-received blues-inflected LP in 1963, Night Beat, and his most critically acclaimed studio album, Ain't That Good News, which featured five singles, in 1964. In 1963, Cooke signed a five-year contract for Allen Klein to manage Kags Music and SAR Records, and made him his manager. Klein negotiated a five-year deal (three years plus two option years) with RCA Victor in which a holding company, Tracey, Ltd, named after Cooke's daughter, owned by Klein and managed by J. W. Alexander, would produce and own Cooke's recordings. RCA Victor would get exclusive distribution rights in exchange for six percent royalty payments and payments for the recording sessions.