97 a “full-fledged trend”: Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, “The Latest Trend: R&B Disks Are Going Pop,” Cash Box, July 3, 1954.
97 a detailed memo that covered everything: Billy Vera booklet accompanying the five-CD box set The Specialty Story (Specialty 4412), p. 8; also see In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records (Ace CD 542).
97 He was paying money to get his records played: Billy Vera notes to Don and Dewey CD, Jungle Hop (Specialty 7008). Vera quotes from correspondence between Rupe and Alan Freed from 1953 to 1955, expressing for the most part Rupe’s “disappointment” and disillusionment, and Vera cites payola as one of Art’s principal reasons for eventually leaving the business.
98 he had produced, “I’d say ninety-five percent”: In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records.
98 They were out with the Five Blind Boys: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, April 25 and May 14, 1953.
98 set “attendance records”: Los Angeles Sentinel, June 25, 1953.
98 A 1948 program in Newark: Lee Hildebrand and Opal Louis Nations, liner notes to The Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama: The Sermon (Specialty CD 7041). See also Geoffrey Himes, “The Five Blind Boys of Alabama,” No Depression, May-June 2001.
99 as J.W. wrote to Art in April: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, April 25, 1953.
99 Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys . . . took pretty much the same view: Their view is based primarily on my interviews with Clarence Fountain and Johnny Fields.
102 “She was a pretty girl”: Wolff, You Send Me, p. 104.
102 Barbara, meanwhile, had had her baby: Linda Marie Campbell was born April 25, 1953.
102 he even married her: Barbara and Clarence married on October 5, just two weeks before Sam and Dolores Mohawk.
103 the substitution of Hawaiian steel guitar: The unnamed steel guitarist appears to have been someone unknown to Art Rupe, and perhaps even to the Soul Stirrers—at least that would be one reason why the combination was so unsuccessful. Possibly, Rupe came up with the idea in the hope of recapturing some of the fire, and some of the popularity, of the group’s partnership with Willie Eason, the father of “sacred steel” guitar, on two 1947 Aladdin titles. In any case, it didn’t work, and while the steel player was given a vocal audition of his own, nothing more seems to have been heard from him at Specialty, and it would be another two years before the Soul Stirrers had a guitarist of their own, when Bob King joined the group.
104 “a basketball team [who] when they throw a note”: “Salient points from ANR’s [Arthur N. Rupe’s] Talk, from tape,” n.d., Specialty archives.
104 “‘Shake a Hand,’ a common greeting among followers of spiritual and gospel music”: Joel Friedman, “Hallelujah! Religious Field Growing Bonanza,” Billboard, February 6, 1954.
104 a year-end gross of $100,000: Ibid.
106 “Sam was a man about town”: Wolff, You Send Me, p. 107.
107 “I was the first”: Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, p. 122.
107 “we wound up with fifty cents”: Ibid., p. 125.
107 The other Gales took a somewhat less charitable view: Their view, and my perspective on the group, come primarily from interviews with JoJo Wallace and Howard Carroll, as well as from Heilbut, The Gospel Sound, and Glenn Hinson, Fire in My Bones: Transcendence and the Holy Spirit in African American Gospel.
107 “I was the one”: Heilbut, The Gospel Sound, p. 125.
108 Oakland gospel stalwart Faidest Wagoner: Wagoner’s story comes from Lee Hildebrand’s ca. 1992 interview, from which all quotes are taken. Also Doris Worsham, “Fete Planned for Musician,” Oakland Tribune, November 25, 1978; Opal Louis Nations, “My Soul Concerto: The Story of the Apollas”; and biographical material supplied by Faidest Wagoner through Opal.
111 J.W. Alexander put Herman Hill and Associates . . . on retainer: Letter of authorization for payment to Herman Hill by Herald Attractions, March 17, 1954 (Specialty archives).
111 “a white piano installed in the trunk”: Jet, July 1, 1954.
112 Mahalia Jackson was continuing to develop: See Jet, July 22, August 26, and September 30, 1954, among others.
112 a twenty-seven-year-old New Orleans-based bluesman named Eddie Jones: Information on Eddie Jones (Guitar Slim) and Johnny Vincent comes primarily from John Broven, Walking to New Orleans: The Story of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues, pp. 50ff., and Jeff Hannusch, I Hear You Knockin’: The Sound of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues, pp. 177ff.
112 auditioned for him by the devil in a dream: Hannusch, I Hear You Knockin’, p. 182.
113 whose “predominantly [white] femme audience . . . went beserk”: Cash Box (n.d.), as quoted in “In Memoriam,” Shout 47, September 6, 1969. By far the best account of Hamilton’s career is Peter Grendysa, “Never Walking Alone,” published in both Goldmine, April 1979, and Soul Survivor 5, summer 1986.
113 “try to write words in the blues field”: Art Rupe to Wynona Carr, April 14, 1955. Carr had written to Rupe as early as January 27 on the subject.
115 “Please release ‘Nearer My God to Thee’”: S.R. Crain to Art Rupe, undated but answered with a check dated February 22, 1955.
115 a follow-up letter a week later: This letter was dated February 28.
116 the controversy that J.W. deliberately ignited: The Los Angeles Sentinel reported on the controversy on October 6, 1955; the session was August 4.
118 “Well, let him get his head bumped”: Wolff, You Send Me, p. 105.
119 Johnnie had been raised by an aunt: Background on Johnnie Taylor’s early life, and his joining the QCs, comes primarily from my interviews with Creadell Copeland and L.C. Cooke; Barbara Cooke’s interview with Lee Richard; John Broven and Cilla Huggins’ 1989 interview with Johnnie Taylor; Lee Hildebrand liner notes to the three-CD career survey Johnnie Taylor: Lifetime (Stax 4432); and Pierre Daguerre, “L’Interview de Johnnie Taylor,” Soul Bag 118.
120 That was the summer that . . . Bob King joined the group: Background information on Bob King is primarily from interviews with Howard Carroll, JoJo Wallace, and Edith King. Jerry Zolten originally put me onto the connection between Carroll and King, whose picture together appears in Zolten’s book Great God A’Mighty!: The Dixie Hummingbirds under King’s given name of Rudolf. Jerry also provided me with an introduction to Howard Carroll.
121 Dorothy Love and the Original Gospel Harmonettes: Although Dorothy Love became best known as Dorothy Love Coates (and all of her earlier, as well as her later, work has now been reissued under that name), she did not marry Sensational Nightingales bass singer Carl Coates until 1959.
121 Art recorded the program at the Shrine Auditorium: Rupe had been recording live gospel programs at Brother Joe May’s urging for over three years at this point. He downplayed the significance of it in interviews. “It was very primitive,” he told the BBC, “and I never really intended to put it out; I just wanted to double-check for myself audience response.” Clearly, though, the aim was to capture some of the power and the glory that he heard in the music. That, certainly, is what one hears, all these years later, on the tracks that have finally been released, but I’m not aware that any of it came out at the time.
121 Bumps . . . was an indifferent musician but a tireless hustler: Bumps’ Seattle background is detailed in Paul de Barros, Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle, where the Floyd Standifer quotes appear.
121 a working knowledge of Yiddish and an advanced degree in music: Bumps spoke of his “conservatory training” in various interviews, and it is cited in the Melody Maker article below.
121 “the sun was shining, everything was happening”: Michael Watts, “Bumps Blackwell,” part 1, Melody Maker, August 26, 1972. There is extensive background on Blackwell here, also in Michael Ochs and Ed Pearl’s 1981 interviews with Blackwell, and an anonymous taped interview in the Specialty archives.
121 a singer named Sonny Knight: Information on Sonny Knight comes primarily from Bill Millar’s 1981 interview.
All quoted material is from that interview. His story appears in Millar, Let the Good Times Rock! A Fan’s Notes on Post-War American Roots Music.
122 he had not up to this time recorded “spiritual” music: Bumps’ assignment appears to have been designed as some kind of test—although it should be noted that previous live gospel recordings had been done by Ted Brinson, a bass-playing fixture on the L.A. r&b scene, who had his own home studio in his garage.
123 “We were making up songs to make folk shout”: JoJo Wallace in Hinson, Fire in My Bones, p. 242.
123 “People were screaming, throwing purses”: Wolff, You Send Me, p. 121.
123 “they didn’t need us women”: BBC interview with Dorothy Love Coates.
125 “Nearer to Thee,” Crain said, was the group’s “stick”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with S.R. Crain. Subsequent quotes are from that interview.
127 “It was awesome, phenomenal”: Wolff, You Send Me, p. 121.
128-129 a singer who . . . had sent Art a tape: The tape box arrived on February 17, 1955, according to Rick Coleman and Rob Finnis’ notes to the three-CD Little Richard box set, Little Richard: The Specialty Sessions (Specialty 8508), p. 20. Additional sources are the Art Rupe interview in the Specialty archives; Barrett Hansen, “The Specialty Story,” Hit Parader, June 1969; Michael Ochs and Ed Pearl’s interview with Bumps Blackwell, 1981; “Gospel Singers in Coffee Houses,” Sepia, March 1960; Charles White, The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock; and my interview with Lloyd Price.
129 “Mr. Art Rupe,” the singer announced: The announcement, and the songs, are included as the first two tracks of the three-CD set above. The difference between this audition tape and “Tutti Frutti,” Little Richard’s first Specialty single, provides an eye-opening picture of the revolution that Bumps, Art Rupe, and the New Orleans rhythm section wrought.
129 “that, coupled with a gospel sound and a little more energy, was the basis for [my] being interested”: Rick Coleman, notes to Little Richard box set, p. 21. As Rupe says in this interview, he and Bumps listened to the audition tape together and then compared notes.
129 a judicious loan to the artist of $600: Buyout agreement, May 13, 1955, and correspondence with Little Richard’s manager, Cliff Brantley, September 13 (Specialty archives).
129 “I had to literally make blueprints”: Rick Coleman, notes to Little Richard box set, p. 22.
129 Bumps mailed back the session sheets: Letter from Bumps Blackwell to Art Rupe, September 17, 1955.
“LOVABLE”
130 he and Sam would wait in the reception area: Interviews with Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun.
132 “A lot of things was going on”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with S.R. Crain, 1996.
137 doing some work for Don Robey: For purposes of dating, “Next Time You See Me” was recorded in Houston on May 7, 1956.
139 the White Citizens Council attack on Nat “King” Cole: This took place on April 10, 1956, and is documented in Daniel Mark Epstein, Nat King Cole, pp. 255ff.
139 “He was born there”: “Backstage with Clyde Reid,” Amsterdam News, April 21, 1956.
139 J.W. Alexander was reported . . . to have “electrified audiences everywhere”: Los Angeles Sentinel, March 29, 1956.
141 he had to share his income equally: In a letter to S.R. Crain, February 16, 1956, Art Rupe stipulates that by prior arrangement all Soul Stirrers songwriting royalties are going to Crain, and that it is up to Crain to give Sam his.
143 Dorothy Love . . . took to calling him “Mr. Wonderful”: BBC interview with Dorothy Love Coates.
143 the kind of pansexual hysteria: Sam Moore and Dave Marsh, Sam and Dave: An Oral History, pp. 26-27.
143 “This man was so smooth, so good”: Daniel Wolff, with S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum, You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke, p. 90.
144 “RETURNED BY POPULAR DEMAND”: Advertisement, Atlanta Daily World, July 13, 1956. Additional ads and squibs for the program appeared on July 15 and 18.
146 “all them tricks that Harris was making”: Ray Funk interview with Paul Foster, 1981.
146 an event “celebrating Herman Nash’s six years of Gospel Promoting”: Atlanta Daily World, August 19, 1956.
147 The presentation of a full gospel program had been introduced: Background on gospel at the Apollo and Thermon Ruth (including quotations) from Ted Fox, Showtime at the Apollo: The Story of Harlem’s World Famous Theater, pp. 227-228, and Todd R. Baptista, Group Harmony: Echoes of the Rhythm and Blues Era, pp. 96-116, primarily.
148 he was offered no more than $1,000: Alex Bradford and his six Bradford Singers received $850.11 for the original December 1955 show, the Harmonizing Four $550, according to Apollo Theater records, Schiffman Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
148 “we will go into the Apollo, but when we do, we gonna get paid”: The source for Crain’s claim is, as indicated, Leroy Crume. There is no written record of what the Soul Stirrers got paid in August, but when they returned in December, they received $3,500, according to Apollo Theater records.
149 Fats Domino and Frankie Lymon were headlining: The Paramount’s gross and Fats Domino’s Steve Allen Show appearance are documented in Lee Cotten, Reelin’ & Rockin’: The Golden Age of American Rock ’n Roll, vol. 2, 1956-1959.
149 “the first black [-owned business] on the street”: John Broven, “Bobby’s Happy House of Hits,” parts 1 and 2, Juke Blues 15 and 16. Also, Valerie Wilmer, “Echoes: Legends of the Back Streets,” Melody Maker, November 18, 1978.
149 “If the rules are more important to you than the money”: Wolff, You Send Me, p. 138.
149 the departure of his meal ticket: Galen Gart, First Pressings: The History of Rhythm & Blues, 1956, p. 72, which dates Bill Cook’s announcement as June 2. See also Peter Grendysa, “Never Walking Alone,” Goldmine, April 1979; and Roy Hamilton, “The Night I Couldn’t Find God,” Sepia, January 1958.
149 Bill Cook, in fact, was booked into the Apollo: Amsterdam News, September 8, 1956.
150 Cook cut demos on half a dozen of the “little songs”: Bill Cook’s composition “I’ll Come Running Back to You” was titled “Just Call My Name” on the tape box from this session. The tape itself survived in fractured form. It was almost entirely recorded over, so you can hear only fragments of each song, with the exception of “The Time Has Come,” which for some reason escaped intact. So far as dating is concerned, Rupe’s check for studio time was sent to Bill Cook on August 21, which might make one think that the session was held prior to the Apollo engagement, were it not for the steady lineup of Soul Stirrers dates leading up to their week in New York. My assumption, then, is that the check represented a deposit on studio time paid out to Bill Cook in advance.
150 “Gospel songs intrigued me”: “Gospel Singers in Coffee Houses,” Sepia, March 1960.
150 his own inclination “to look down my nose”: Interview with Bumps Blackwell, Specialty archives. All quotes through “You don’t leave religion to sing” are from this interview.
151 An artist was someone “born and endowed with talent”: Michael Ochs and Ed Pearl interview with Bumps Blackwell, 1981.
151 the first Soul Stirrers session for which he had had direct responsibility: Roy Porter, the drummer on this session, places Bumps in charge in his memoir, written with David Keller, There and Back: The Roy Porter Story, p. 94.
151 “So S.R. Crain was a little upset”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.
152 “I had the voice, the confidence, and the equipment”: “The Private Life of Sam Cooke,” Tan, April 1958.
152 a low of 66,000: To indicate how precipitous a drop in income these 1955 figures represented, at their height in 1950 the Travelers sold a total of 392,000 records and earned $7,800 in royalties.
153 “I have never said you made a mistake”: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, January 27, 1957.
153 In September he wrote to
Art: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, September 12, 1956.
153 he wrote to him again at the end of the month: This letter is undated but notes that J.W. will be at the same address in Houston until October 3. The coincidence that he speaks of, the resemblance between Ray Charles’ “Lonely Avenue” and Whitaker’s “I Got a New Home,” was no coincidence: they were the same song. “Ray idolized my baritone Jesse Whitaker,” J.W. said. “I had a girlfriend who had an aunt who owned the Little Hotel for Visiting Friends in Dallas. Ray used to stay there [in the early days] and come to our concerts.”
153 “It seems,” Bumps wrote at the end of the year: Bumps Blackwell to J.W. Alexander, December 28, 1956.
154 Matassa, whose family had long owned a grocery store: In addition to my own interviews with Cosimo, John Broven’s Walkin’ to New Orleans: The Story of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues and Rick Coleman’s research proved invaluable resources.
155 how Tony first came to Specialty: See Opal Louis Nations, “The Chicken Baby Man: The Story of Tony Harris,” parts 1 and 2, Blues & Rhythm 115, 116.
155 Art came downstairs to the little rehearsal studio: Art Rupe told me that the idea for “Lovable” came from him brainstorming with Bumps and that Bumps engaged Tony and/or Sam to write new lyrics. He had no recollection of Bill Cook’s involvement, but it is clear from Bill Cook’s contemporary correspondence that Sam and Bill Cook had the idea long before the New Orleans session.
156 “I had a wonderful time, a wonderful life”: “The Private Life of Sam Cooke,” Tan, April 1958.
159 Dolores showed increasing signs of dissatisfaction and depression: Agnes Cook spoke of Dolores’ sense of insecurity and displacemement in our interviews; see also Wolff, You Send Me.
159 Sam was about to become a father again: Much of the information on Sam and Connie Bolling’s relationship comes from their son, Keith Bolling, and his wife, Pam, to whom I was introduced by Diane Brown.
159 a potential “moneydripper”: Michael Ochs and Ed Pearl interview with Bumps Blackwell.
159 L.C. had just played Memphis with the Magnificents: In addition to my interviews with L.C. Cooke and Magnificent Montague, Johnny Keyes’ Du-Wop provides a wonderful firsthand account.
Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke Page 84
