Sam Cooke was so handsome

tamewar said:

A great talent, taken from us too soon!!

great song sam cooke is awesome

The greatest singer EVER!!!!!

In any catagory....

Jackie Wilson comes in second

Live at the Harlem Square Club 1963 is the best soul album ever. If you don't like it, I don't like you.

funkpill said:

Well, I gotta throw Little Willie John in the mix. He toured w/ both Sam and Jackie. I love all 3, so..

brooksie said:

It's a shame how underrated duke is.

^^^ Yup, that's why I pimp him whenever I can. I bet many haven't even heard of him. In terms of complicated material and his ability to carry it, I rate him higher than the other two, tbh.

brooksie said:

After hearing Willie's shit on YouTube, I'm gonna have to agree. His voice was SO soulful. James Brown was even intimidated by him!!!!

nah....still Sam

In fact, I think either me or LBC did a Little Willie appreciation thread... maybe I need to do another one. Or maybe you can do it, brooksie!

Timmy84 said:

Before I knew of him, it was Sam for me. Funny thing is that each of these guys are quite different from each other stylewise. Sam had a beautiful souly, yet commercial sound that can't be beat. I can think of no singer since that's had such a balance as he did. (Edited to say...maybe Marvin was close. What do y'all think?)

Jackie, OTOH, was more of a rock singer in the truest sense while keeping a high traditional soul quotient. He had a great voice and great delivery of lyric. He was your souly all rounder w/ great stage presence.

Lil Willie could sing anything and NOT over sing (which both Jackie and Sam were sometimes guilty of). He sings in such a "dense" way and w/ such nuance, His phrasing is just unbeatable and he could do so w/o the pitch problems that Sinatra sometimes had. It's just incredible how he could phrase a lyric. IOW, he could sing Jackie and Sam's stuff easily, but I'm not so sure they could handle his stuff w/ the nuance and complicated phrasing he was capable of.

James Brown had a godfather and his name was Lil Willie John!
[Edited 6/15/09 16:43pm]

brooksie said:

I love how low he starts off in "Around the World" and then goes high near the end of it! Same with "Sleep" from a few years later.

Is there anyone who doesn't love "You Send Me"? So simple, yet so right.

AlexdeParis said:

Roy Ayers did a unique version of that song in '78...

Timmy84 said:

Maybe one about unusual voices that are fairly unknown? Maybe Lil Willie, Jacob Miller, and a few more mostly Jamaicans. I've been reading thru the threads am I'm amazed at what names are never mentioned.

brooksie said:

That could work, lol. It's the same Mrsoulpower and I Ain't the One been doing: introducing music by people who you never see get mentioned around here.

http://www.imeem.com/arti...u-send-me/

Here's the Roy version by the way... he turned a classic song of the doo-wop, rock 'n' roll era into a soulful quiet storm ballad!
[Edited 6/15/09 16:49pm]

"You Send Me" is a great tune, but I'm more into Sam's uptempo stuff like "Twistin' The Night Away", "Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha", and "Cupid".
[Edited 6/15/09 16:52pm]

brooksie said:

"Cupid" is my SHIT!!!!

That and "Bring It On Home to Me"! To me THAT is the greatest song Sam ever released. THAT'S SOUL MUSIC! "You Send Me" is a DOO-WOPPER tho.

"Only 16" and "Wonderful World" is nice stuff too. Sam really did a good job w/ the whole cha cha era that happened after Elvis went to Germany and before the Beatles came here. One of the bright spots in pop music of that era, IMHO.

brooksie said:

I argue that Sam was really one of the founders of rock 'n' roll but he never is mentioned in that light. Don't have a clue why either. Because his music was more rock (as Jackie's) in the beginning. It was only later that "the soul man" element in him came out, I think it was when "Cupid" came out.

brooksie said:

I'm crazy for 'cupid' possibly one of my favourite songs of all time

Timmy84 said:

Well just my take on it, but Blacks were being scrubbed outta rock n roll after a certain point. I'd say around the time Pat Boone started getting big hits off Lil Richards' stuff.

By my ears, all 3 of the guys mentioned on this thread were defintiely apart of early rock, but it seems to me they came after the Chuck Berry, Lil Richard, Bo Diddley, Chubby Checker door closed. So they kinda of changed their sounds a bit, but yeah in the late 50s and until about 61, these dudes were doing sounds that were apart of the rock genre.

Funny thing was that Lil Willie was going in that rock direction from about 59-61...towards the end of his career. He started out mostly rnb and blues, but was getting rockier!
[Edited 6/15/09 17:10pm]

mancabdriver said:

I have "Cupid" on my mp3 player cuz I dig that cha cha beat and his voice was in top form there. Beautiful song.

brooksie said:

Exactly. And it's about time that shit gets reversed. Our music often gets miscontrued a lot. Doo-wop, rockabilly, soul and rock 'n' roll were, in reality, the children or siblings or even cousins of R&B (AKA Rhythm and Blues). And "You Send Me" is definitely a rock and roll classic.
[Edited 6/15/09 17:09pm]

Timmy84 said:

I've seen several threads asking why Black folks aren't into rock and/or when they dropped it. Too bad they're either very old or locked cuz there was definitely a turning point. The funny thing is that many artists who are thought of as soul artists from that era were considered rock artists OR rnb artists who performed rock back then. Revisionist history has wiped them outta the rock cannon.

Most people think of classic Rod Stewart (a la Jeff Beck Group and Faces) as heavy rock, right? He's doing straight up Sam and Jackie in his vocal style, yet they aren't considered rock?