Hi Ozzieguy. Thanks again for all the wonderful music you share with the world. The world needs it now more than ever. I love Sam Cooke, but I'm a little frustrated by the fact that nearly all the albums of Sam's that you share have a restriction placed on them that prohibits downloading. Am I doing something wrong? It's never a problem with your Mega downloads. Thanks, and...All good wishes, Iggy
Sam Cooke Album Download Zip
Hi iggyNo, you would not be doing anything wrong. Where the albums are right now at mediafire, they block everything so I need to place them all onto Mega.Thanks for letting me know.RegardsOzzieguy
Sam Cooke left an indelible mark on the face of popular music. He was the inventor of Soul music and one of the most important singers and composers of all time. Without a doubt, he had one of the smoothest, most soulful voices around. Even today there are few voices that can compare.This quintessential release compiles two of his finest LPs: The Wonderful World of Sam Cooke (1960) and My Kind of Blues (1961). Both sensational albums continue to stand the test of time and contain some of his greatest studio recordings. There's no better proof of Sam Cooke's genius than these stylish and exuberant remastered recordings.Same Cooke, vocalsCliff White, guitarRene Hall, guitar Red Callender, bass Hank Jones, pianoErnie Hayes, piano Earl Palmer, drums Charles Blackwell, drumsSeldon Powell, saxophoneLee Gotch, backing vocals Pied Pipers, backing vocalsRecorded between 1957 and 1961Arranged and conducted by René Hall, Sammy Lowe, Glen OsserProduced by Bumps Blackwell, Hugo & LuigiDigitally remastered
Of the great artists from the first era of rock & roll, few were as powerful and exciting as Little Richard, and no one bested his magnetism and flamboyance. Blessed with a singularly forceful voice (his piercing "Whooooo!" is still one of the most eloquent screams in American music) and a rollicking piano style, Little Richard fused gospel, rhythm & blues, and boogie woogie into a sound that was purely electric, and he startled audiences with his flashy clothes, outrageous persona, and willingness to present a sexually ambiguous image at a time when such things were all but unknown in popular culture. And though Little Richard had a relatively short tenure as a major hitmaker -- nearly all his hits appeared in 1956 and 1957 -- he maintained a reputation as an unrelenting stage performer, capable of blowing nearly any act off the stage, and his influence would be felt decades after he stopped charting singles on a regular basis. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, David Bowie, and Bob Dylan all cited Richard as a key inspiration, and he never entirely lost his audience despite walking away from secular music not once, but twice, convinced that rock & roll was an offense against his Christian faith. Richard's classic 1956-1957 sides for Specialty Records -- his greatest work -- are best heard on the 1991 compilation The Georgia Peach, and 1962's King of the Gospel Singers is among the very best of his underrated gospel recordings. While many of his '60s recordings were disappointing, 1964's Little Richard Is Back (And There's a Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) and 1967's The Explosive Little Richard showed that his voice, his passion, and his charisma were still in fine condition. 1972's The Second Coming was the strongest of his comeback albums of that decade, and 1986's Lifetime Friend was a strong late-period LP that featured his last significant hit, "Great Gosh A'Mighty (It's a Matter of Time)."
"Tutti Frutti" made Little Richard an overnight star, and between 1956 and 1957, he delivered a string of singles that were R&B and pop hits and cemented his reputation as the wildest man in rock & roll, including "Long Tall Sally," "Rip It Up," "The Girl Can't Help It," "Lucille," and "Jenny Jenny." Richard would spend decades fighting the penurious recording and publishing contracts he signed with Specialty, but his gig fees made him a wealthy man, and he landed a prime spot in Frank Tashlin's rock & roll comedy film The Girl Can't Help It. Relocating to a mansion in Los Angeles and buying a fleet of brightly colored Cadillacs, Richard was living the good life, but that came to a halt in October 1957; while traveling to Australia, Richard experienced the first of several apocalyptic visions that convinced him he needed to turn away from the sinful influences of rock & roll. Within a matter of months, he turned his back on secular music, enrolled in college to study theology, got married, and spearheaded an evangelistic crusade. In 1960, Richard cut a pair of gospel albums for End Records, Pray Along with Little Richard, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and in 1962, Mercury released The King of the Gospel Singers, produced by Quincy Jones. In the fall of 1963, Richard was booked for a tour of the United Kingdom, where his records continued to sell, with Sam Cooke as his co-headliner. On the first night, Richard was upset when fans, expecting to hear him sing his rock & roll hits, booed his gospel set, and he was even more unhappy when Cooke received a major ovation. Richard soon decided to give his fans what they wanted, and for the rest of the tour, he played a selection of his classics that bowled the audience over and stole the show from Cooke. The response was strong enough that Richard quickly booked another British tour with the Beatles -- who were on the cusp of becoming global stars -- opening the shows.
With Richard once again committed to rock & roll, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, and cut a comeback album, 1964's Little Richard Is Back (And There's a Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!), which included the R&B hit "I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me," as well as Greatest Hits, featuring new recordings of his hits for Specialty. A brief relationship with the Columbia-affiliated Okeh label resulted in 1967's The Explosive Little Richard, produced by Don Covay, which was cut while Jimi Hendrix was a member of Richard's road band. For the most part, these recordings didn't generate many sales, but his frequent touring in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe helped him enlarge his audience, and as first-era rock & roll came back into vogue in the late '60s, Richard's triumphant appearances at "Rock 'n' Roll Revival" concerts alongside the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Fats Domino found him filling arenas and topping festival bills once again, as well as headlining showrooms in Las Vegas.
Having reaffirmed his status as one of rock & roll's most dynamic artists, Richard signed with Reprise Records, and 1970's The Rill Thing gave him his first hit single in years, "Freedom Blues." However, two follow-ups -- 1971's King of Rock and Roll and 1972's The Second Coming -- didn't find an audience, and Reprise opted not to release a fourth completed album, Southern Child, which finally emerged in 2005 on the box set King of Rock and Roll: The Complete Reprise Recordings. The 1974 album Right Now was cut in a single night with Bumps Blackwell producing, and received so little promotion most fans hardly noticed it. In 1976, he once again re-recorded his '50s classics for K-Tel Records on an LP called Little Richard Live. While Richard continued to tour regularly, he had developed a severe drinking problem along with regularly abusing cocaine, heroin, and PCP. In 1977, weary from touring and chemical dependence, Little Richard once again renounced rock & roll to embrace evangelism, and abandoned secular music in favor of preaching. He cut a gospel album for the Word label, 1979's God's Beautiful City, but largely vanished from the mainstream entertainment business.
Richard cut a gospel-accented rocker, "Great Gosh A'Mighty," with Billy Preston for the soundtrack to Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and its success prompted him to record an album for Warner Bros., 1986's Lifetime Friend. In 1991, Richard contributed a recording of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to the album For Our Children, a benefit release from Disney intended to raise funds for pediatric AIDS charities. Richard's track earned enough praise that Disney brought him in to cut a full album for children, 1992's Shake It All About, that went platinum and became one of the biggest-selling albums of his career. Richard's future recording efforts were limited to occasional guest appearances on multi-artist projects, but he continued to play live. Health problems began to impact the frequency and intensity of his concerts as he struggled with sciatic nerve pain and underwent a hip replacement. In a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone, Richard announced he was retiring, and despite occasional public appearances, he became reclusive and rarely spoke to the media, though he did grant a brief interview in 2017 after the death of Chuck Berry to honor the man he called " one of my best friends in music." That same year, his debut album, 1957's Here's Little Richard, was given a long-overdue reissue, accompanied by a bonus disc of demos and alternate takes. On May 9, 2020, Little Richard died in Tullahoma, Tennessee after struggling with bone cancer; he was 87 years old.
Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career, he founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement. On December 11, 1964, Cooke was allegedly shot to death by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and the manager killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide. Since that time, the circumstances of his death have been widely questioned. Sam Cooke (he added an 'e' onto the end of his name because he thought it added a touch of class) was one of eight children of Rev. Charles and Mrs. Annie Mae Cook. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1933. Cooke began his musical career as a member of a quartet with his siblings, the Singing Children, followed by a turn as a teenager as a member of the Highway QCs, a gospel group. In 1950, at the age of 19, he joined The Soul Stirrers and achieved significant success and fame within the gospel community. His first pop single, 'Lovable' (1956) was released under the alias of 'Dale Cooke,' in order to not alienate his fan base; there was a considerable taboo against gospel singers performing secular music. However, the alias failed to hide Cooke's unique and distinctive vocals. No one was fooled. 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 was unhappy about the type of music Cooke and Bumps Blackwell, Cooke's pop producer, 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 covering Gershwin, he was quite upset. After an argument between Rupe and Blackwell, Cooke and Blackwell left the label, and Cooke signed with Keen Records in 1957. His first release was 'You Send Me', which spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B chart but which also had massive mainstream success, spending three weeks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart. As if a R&B performer writing his own songs and achieving mainstream fame was not innovative enough, Cooke continued to astonish the music business in the 1960s with the founding of his own label, SAR Records, which soon included The Simms Twins, The Valentinos, Bobby Womack, and Johnnie Taylor. Cooke then created a publishing imprint and management firm, then left Keen to sign with RCA. One of his first RCA singles was the hit 'Chain Gang.' It reached #2 on the Billboard pop chart. This was followed by more hits, including 'Sad Mood', 'Bring it on Home to Me' (with Lou Rawls on backing vocals), 'Another Saturday Night' and 'Twistin' the Night Away'. Like most R&B artists of his time, Cooke focused on singles; in all he had 29 top 40 hits on the pop charts, and more on the R&B charts. In spite of this, he released a critically acclaimed blues-inflected LP in 1963, Night Beat. He was known for having written many of the most popular songs of all time in the genre, and is often uncredited for many of them by the general public. Cooke died at the age of 33 under mysterious circumstances on December 11, 1964 in Los Angeles, California. Though the details of the case are still in dispute (see below), it seems he was shot to death by Bertha Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel in South Los Angeles, who claimed that he had threatened her, and that she killed him in self-defense. The verdict was justifiable homicide, though many believe that crucial details did not come out in court, or were buried afterward. Cooke was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California. Some posthumous releases followed, many of which became hits, including 'A Change Is Gonna Come', an early protest song which is generally regarded as his greatest composition. After Cooke's death, his widow, Barbara, married Bobby Womack. Cooke's daughter, Linda, later married Bobby's brother, Cecil. The song 'A Change Is Gonna Come' was played upon the death of Malcolm X, and was memorably featured in Spike Lee's film Malcolm X. Barack Obama's presidential victory speech paraphrased the song: 'It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.' Rapper Tupac Shakur references Cooke in a line of the song 'Thugz Mansion', and Nas references him in the song 'We Major' with Kanye West. The Roots song 'Stay Cool' suggests, 'I got the soul of a young Sam Cooke'. Mike Doughty's song 'Sweet Lord in Heaven' evokes the memory of Cooke, as does the Wallflowers 2000 song 'Sleepwalker': 'Cupid don't draw back your bow, Sam Cooke didn't know what I know'. The Irish rock-group Jetplane Landing have a song named 'Sam Cooke'. A fictional version of Cooke (portrayed by Paul Mooney) appeared briefly in the 1978 film, The Buddy Holly Story, leaving the stage at the Apollo Theater before Buddy and The Crickets got on. After being featured prominently in the 1985 film Witness, the song 'Wonderful World' gained further exposure. 'Wonderful World' was featured in one of two concurrently running Levi's Jeans commercials in 1985 and became a hit in the United Kingdom because of this, reaching #2 in re-release. Other notable movies that featured his music are Animal House ('Wonderful World' and 'Twistin' the Night Away'), American Werewolf in London, and Cadence ('Chain Gang'). Cooke's songs 'Bring It on Home to Me' and 'Change is Gonna Come' were both featured in the movie Ali. The opening scene of the movie consisted of a live reenactment of 'Bring It on Home to Me'. Posthumous honors Shortly following his passing, Motown Records released We Remember Sam Cooke, a collection of Cooke covers recorded by The Supremes. In 1986, Cooke was inducted as a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, Cooke was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #16 on their list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. In 2008, Cooke was named the fourth 'Greatest Singer of All Time' by Rolling Stone magazine.' Covers John Lennon included a medley of two Cooke songs, 'Bring It On Home to Me' and 'Send Me Some Lovin',' on his 1975 oldies album, Rock 'n' Roll. Cooke's songs are covered in a tour-available EP from Decemberists frontman, Colin Meloy. It is the third installment of his solo-tour Colin Meloy Sings...! Johnny Nash covered the song 'Cupid' in 1969 with chart success in the US and UK, and it was included as the B-side on some versions of his 1972 hit single I Can See Clearly Now. The Animals covered the song 'Bring It On Home To Me' in 1965. Amy Winehouse also covered the song 'Cupid' for the BBC Radio 1 album Radio 1 Established 1967. British soul singer Adele covered the song 'That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On' as B-side to her single 'Chasing Pavements' a bonus track for the Asian release of her studio album 19. Richard Marx covered 'Bring It On Home To Me' and 'Wonderful World' during his earlier concerts. 'A Change Is Gonna Come' has been covered several times. Solo, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, The Fifth Dimension, The Neville Brothers, Otis Redding, The Fugees, Cold War Kids, Seal, Bill Frisell, and The Band featuring the vocals of Rick Danko have all recorded versions of the song. Seal's version debuted on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (Billboard, Nov. 2008) shortly after the election of Obama-Biden. Gene Vincent, who was a big fan and a close personal friend of Sam Cooke's, recorded 'Another Saturday Night' in 1964 and 'Bring It On Home to Me' shortly before his own death in 1971. Cat Stevens released his Greatest Hits album (1975) with a cover of Sam Cooke's 'Another Saturday Night', only the second song he released that he didn't write himself. He had also released it as a single (July 12, 1974) which reached No.4 in the U.S. Cooke was an influence on punk vocalist Mia Zapata of The Gits, who honored him with a cover of 'A Change Is Gonna Come' on their album Enter: The Conquering Chicken. In spring 1965 the British group Herman's Hermits reached no. 5 in the US charts and no.7 in the UK charts with their version of 'Wonderful World'. In 1978, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, and James Taylor sang 'Wonderful World' which hit the Top 40 in the US charts. In 1966, the now cult 60s British pop show Ready Steady Goes Live, the live version of Ready Steady Go!, devoted a whole programme to a live performance of Soul singer Otis Redding, who regularly covered many of Cooke's songs. One of the highlights was a rousing version of 'Shake' on which Redding was joined by British Soul legends Eric Burdon, lead singer of The Animals, and chart topper Chris Farlowe. Jimmy Buffett covered 'Another Saturday Night' on his album Margaritaville Cafe Late Night Menu, in 1993. 2ff7e9595c
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