Music Blog

Crystal-Clear & Velvet-Smooth

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Today in Jim Adams’ post entitled Kicking It Off,
Jim has asked us to write about a song by
someone who was born in the month of January
Written for Song Lyric Sunday, this is my choice.

If the singer of my featured songs was still alive, he would be almost 94 years old. That surprised me but the fact that he died 61 years ago was unbelievable! I was not yet a teenager but I still remember the day he died. That performer is Sam Cooke.

Sometimes called the father of soul music, Sam Cooke first reached the top of the charts in 1957 with “You Send Me”. A string of pop and R&B hits soon followed, but he actually started out as a gospel performer. Born Samuel Cook on January 22 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, he grew up in Chicago as the son of a minister.

Sam Cooke began performing with his family as a child. As a teenager, he modeled his early work after one of his greatest inspirations – a gospel group known as the Soul Stirrers. Not long after graduating from high school in 1948, he got the chance of a lifetime – being asked to join the Soul Stirrers – which provided him with an opportunity to hone his craft.

After six years with the Soul Stirrers, Sam Cooke began to branch out into secular music. In 1957 he released his first #1 hit, “You Send Me”, toppling Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock” from the top of the charts. Before long he put his crystal-clear, velvet-smooth voice to work on “Only Sixteen“. More hits followed, including “Chain Gang”, “Wonderful World”, “Twistin’ the Night Away” and “Another Saturday Night.”

No one knows for certain what exactly happened in the early hours of December 11, 1964. Cooke had been out the night before, reportedly drinking at a Los Angeles bar where he met a woman named Elisa Boyer. The pair hit it off and eventually ended up at the Hacienda Motel. There the couple had some type of altercation in their room and Cooke ended up in the motel’s office. He reportedly clashed with the motel’s manager who shot him. Cooke died from his injury; the manager said it was self-defense. The shooting was later ruled justifiable homicide. Sam Cooke was only 33 years old and the story was incredibly shocking.

The year after his death, Cooke’s record company released his song “A Change Is Gonna Come”, a civil rights anthem he wrote in response to Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Sam Cooke was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

My first song today is “You Send Me”. Cooke wrote the song but gave credit to his younger brother, L.C., because he didn’t want his publisher to profit from the song. It was a massive success, becoming a #1 hit on both Billboard’s Rhythm & Blues Records chart and the Billboard Hot 100.  The song was named as one of the 500 most important R&R recordings by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In April 2010, it was ranked #115 in Rolling Stone magazine’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. 

From 1959 this is “You Send Me”.

LYRICS

Darling, you send me
I know you send me
Darling, you send me
Honest you do, honest you do
Honest you do, whoa

You thrill me
I know you, you, you thrill me
Darling, you, you, you, you thrill me
Honest you do

At first I thought it was infatuation
But, woo, it’s lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To marry you and take you home, whoa

You, you, you, you send me
I know you send me
I know you send me
Honest you do

Whoa-oh-oh, whenever I’m with you
I know, I know, I know when I’m near you
Mm hmm, mmm hmm, honest you do, honest you do
Whoa-oh-oh, I know-oh-oh-oh
I know, I know, I know, when you hold me
Whoa, whenever you kiss me
Mm hmm, mm hmm, honest you do

At first I thought it was infatuation
But, woo, it’s lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To marry you and take you home

I know, I know, I know you send me
I know you send me
Whoa, you, you, you, you send me
Honest you do

Written by: L.C. Cook
Lyrics © Tratore, Abkco Music Inc.
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

My next song is “A Change Is Gonna Come”. The song was inspired by various events in Cooke’s life, most prominently when he and his entourage were turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana. Cooke felt compelled to write a song that spoke of his struggle and of those around him, and that pertained to the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison to his previous singles, “A Change Is Gonna Come” is widely considered one of his greatest and most influential compositions and has been voted among the greatest songs ever recorded by various publications. In 2007, the song was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress by the National Recording Registry. In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine placed it at #3 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

From 1964, this is “A Change Is Gonna Come”

Music by: Sam Cooke
Directed & Produced by: Hector Sanitizo/Robin Klein/Julian Klein/Mick Gochanour
Video Editor: Andre Murrugarra. (C) 2016 ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.
Music video of Sam Cooke performing A Change Is Gonna Come. (C) 2016 ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

Kicking It Off

Big thanks to Jim Adams for hosting another great Song Lyric Sunday this week. Be sure to follow the link and check out Jim’s site.

Thanks for stopping by. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy ~ The Sicilian Storyteller, Nancy (The Sicilian Storyteller), The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.



56 thoughts on “Crystal-Clear & Velvet-Smooth”

  11. Sam Cooke certainly was an original and he became a very successful businessman owning a record company which gave other artists a way to break into the music business. I watched the 2020 film One Night in Miami…, and this movie shows what a great man he was. Great choice, Nancy.

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  12. I love both your picks today Nancy. 🙂❤️ Twisting the Night Away was another great one he did. He was a handsome man and with that smooth voice too … well. I saw a musical about his life several years ago. Another tragoc story from that time in the music business.

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      1. Yes I agree Nancy. They were both navigating a difficult time in US history. Fame, money and drugs too. They Neither of them were faithful men and there were plenty of women. Add guns to that and nothing good happens. Marvin’s story was a particularly sad one. Tragic.

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  13. I dug Sam at an early age. Cookie, my older cousin, by seven years played his 45 on her portable record player, along with Elvis, The Everly Brothers and all the cool cats back then. I thought he sounded a bit like Johnny Mathis, but smoother. Mathis would get stuck and fall behind the tempo, then spit it out, sort of like Willie Nelson, who is the master. Cookie went on to become a Beatnik and worked at the first coffee house in downtown Fort Worth. She’s been fodder for many of my short blurbs. A Performance to Remember is one of them. You pick some interesting singers, good stuff.

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    1. I dug Sam Cooke, too, and I was barely a teen. He was so smooth and lovely, a lot like Marvin, I think ….. more so than Johnny Mathis who has a unique and wonderful style all his own. I remember watching Dobie Gillis (a show ahead of its time like Burns & Allen, incorporating the Fourth Wall) and thinking I’d like to be a cool beatnik like Maynard G. Krebs. I know I was the only girl in school who had a thing for Jack Kerouac. Oh, the good old days! I’m pleased to know you find my stuff interesting. I know what I like and I try to spread the good word. Thanks much, Phil.

      Can you send a link to A Performance to Remember so I don’t have to hunt for it? Much obliged.

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      2. I thought Maynard was cool before his time. Dobie Gillis show was ahead of it’s time. Another good one was Love That Bob, with Bob Cummings portraying a photographer that shot gals in bathing suits. A bit risqué for the 50s.

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          1. I’ve started another story on her history once she got to California. She got all tangled up in the early rock scene and actually knew many of the Laural Canyon tribe. Other cousins and family said she never got back to normal.

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  17. I remember both songs very well, and understandably, Rolling Stone magazine placed “A Change Is Gonna Come” at #3 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time … 💙🎵💜

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