352 a female fan emerging from the crowd to punch him savagely: The Carolinian, November 12, 1960.
352 a former gospel singer named Theola Kilgore: J.W. introduced her to her producer, Ed Townsend.
352 a press release announcing that Sam would soon be interviewed: California Eagle, October 27, 1960.
352 “eye-popping splendor”: “Royal Peacock, Treasure Island, Henry’s Lounge Win Rave Notices,” Atlanta Daily World, October 22, 1960.
352 Clyde had taken his place on a downtown picket line: Jet, December 15, 1960, has a picture of Clyde picketing with Martin Luther King Sr.; the Chicago Defender, December 9-16, 1960, has an article entitled “Clyde McPhatter Advises Kids in Dixie on ‘Bias,’” which refers to Clyde giving several speeches on local campuses while playing the Peacock and cites his gift of NAACP memberships for Christmas. The Carolinian, November 19, 1960, quotes from a letter he wrote to his fellow performers, which I have used in part for the text of his unrecorded campus speech. TheAtlanta Daily World, November 26, covered the renewal of the demonstrations after a lull.
352-353 many big-name stars were bypassing the Deep South: Jet, December 22, 1960.
354 “I ain’t never gonna sing at the Waldorf”: This comes from interviews with Luigi Creatore but is also quoted from Hugo Peretti, with only a slight variation, in Hirshey, Nowhere to Run, p. 114. “They’re not my people,” Sam says of the Waldorf clientele in this version. To which Hugo adds, “He would rather work.”
ANOTHER COUNTRY
355 “she shot him twice”: Art Peters, “Jackie Wilson Near Death” (two front-page stories), Philadelphia Tribune, February 18, 1961. Jackie did not return to the road until July. When he did, he practically caused a riot in his first scheduled performance, at the Uptown Theater, as he leapt offstage, according to the Philadelphia Tribune, July 4, 1961, and the fans, as usual, tore his clothes off. When he scrambled back onstage, though, he gave the audience a scare of its own, Jet magazine, July 20, 1961, reported, as he “coughed violently in the middle of a tune, swayed,” then fell backward onto the floor before miraculously reviving and going on with the show.
356 the formation of Cooke-Rand Productions: Variety, February 1, 1961.
359 his long association with Sammy Davis Jr. and its bitter dénouement: This is alluded to in Wil Haygood, In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr., p. 298.
360 “I am aware that owning a record company”: Radio Luxembourg Book of Record Stars, 1962. See also Don Nelsen, “A Successful Cooke,” Sunday Daily News, July 16, 1961, for Sam’s early- and subsequently oft-stated intention to give himself over to his record company and leave the singing “to the younger fellows.”
360 She went to work the following Monday: Payroll records show Zelda receiving her first paycheck on January 20, 1961, for $85.
362 “with no formal musical training whatsoever”: BBC interview with René Hall.
363 a gospel duo Alex had discovered: The Sims Twins recalled that the gospel program on which they appeared also included the Mighty Clouds of Joy.
364 Kenneth mimicked the sound of the arrow: Steve Propes interview with the Sims Twins. René Hall volunteers the same description in his 1987 interview with Propes. Luigi Creatore and Al Schmitt recalled Sam making the sound, but this is impossible because there is an overlap beween his vocal and the whoosh even on the outtakes.
365 She gave up Kools for Kents: Aretha spoke of this in both our interview and in her autobiography with David Ritz, Aretha: From These Roots, p. 67.
365 she kept a scrapbook: Mark Bego, Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul, p. 27.
367 throwing up a partition for her: Ritz, Aretha: From These Roots, p. 92.
367-368The New Yorker, Playboy, and Aristotle’s Poetics: J.W. Alexander, Aretha Franklin, June Gardner, Jess Rand, and Barbara and Linda Cooke, among others, all attested to Sam’s specific reading habits and cited individual titles. J.W. named Aristotle, TheNew Yorker, and Playboy; Linda and June both spoke of War and Peace.
369 “to carry on the fight for Negro rights”: Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965, p. 114.
369 Ray Brown . . . explained that the show had been advertised: “Cooke and McPhatter Kept Quiet,” Memphis World, May 20, 1961. It should be noted that Ray Charles refused to play Augusta, Georgia, on March 15, 1961, under similar circumstances, described fully in Michael Lydon, Ray Charles: Man and Music, pp. 196-197. The promoter sued, and Charles paid a $757 fine. Ray subsequently played Memphis on August 20 in what Variety referred to, in an August 23, 1961, front-page story, as the first fully integrated show at Ellis Auditorium. “Policemen were all over the place,” the August 26 Memphis World reported with full cognizance of Sam and Clyde McPhatter’s earlier stand, “but they weren’t needed. Old Man Segregation had gone for a swim in the muddy Wolf River.”
371 “Sam Cooke, singer and idol of thousands”: “Walker, Turner Paid Glowing Tributes: City Heads Present,” Memphis World, May 20, 1961.
371 The city’s two white newspapers reported: “2 Negro Singers Fail to Appear,” Memphis Press-Scimitar; “Two Negro Stars Cancel Show Here,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, both May 13, 1961.
371 Sam released his own statement: Tri-State Defender, May 20, 1961, and passim.
371 “Singers Say No to Jim Crow”: Amsterdam News, May 27, 1961.
371 “Top Singers Spurn Segregated Audience”: Los Angeles Sentinel, June 1, 1961.
371 “Singing Stars Balk”: Kansas City Call, June 2, 1961.
371 “Clyde McPhatter, Sam Cooke Clip Memphis”: Houston Forward-Times, May 27, 1961, with the same story in New Jersey Afro-American, June 3, and Louisiana Weekly, June 10, among others.
374 “one continuous floor show”: Los Angeles Sentinel, June 15, 1961.
374 the Brook Benton-Dinah Washington hit: Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 8, 1961. In addition, the Prudhomme twins gave a full account of the evening in my interviews with them.
374 RCA had a full-page ad: Cash Box, June 4, 1961.
374 Jess’ crazy friend Mike Santangelo: Almost all information on Santangelo comes, with great affection, from Jess Rand.
374 the Hollywood Reporter ran a similarly unsourced note: Hollywood Reporter, December 28, 1960.
375 “That’s the sound of broken glass”: I’ve never quite understood Jess’ story. I did notice in still photographs that the cue card for the start of the show says in part: “That’s the sound of a man named Sam Cooke. A modest”—but that appears to be an echo of the “Chain Gang” lyric, and, in any case, that’s where the edge of the picture intrudes. The show’s subtitle, incidentally, I assume was “Phenomenon,” but it was printed as “Phenomena” more than once.
375 ten or twelve numbers: the Hollywood Reporter, June 13, 1961, anticipated ten; Cash Box, July 15, counted a dozen.
375 He talked about some of the artists: “‘PM East’ Solid Artist Showcase,” Billboard, June 26, 1961.
376 “one of the few instances where a top Negro entertainer”: Hollywood Reporter, June 13, 1961.
376 “the show was an unalloyed smash”: Billboard, June 26, 1961.
377 They had originally met Sam: Both Bobby Womack and his oldest brother, Friendly Jr. (in his ca. 1984-1985 interview with Barbara Cooke), vividly recalled the incident. Friendly said that the promoter, William Turner, introduced them to the Stirrers. The Womacks were not nonentities in the gospel world, to which they had been introduced by their uncle Solomon Womack, one of the early members of the Swan Silvertones, whose spectacular falsetto lead, Claude Jeter, was a source of unending inspiration to Bobby in particular.
378 The Womacks caught up with Sam: Friendly Womack Jr. recalled many of the details in his interview with Barbara Cooke. So did Bobby and L.C. in our many conversations on the subject.
379 he was looking to score some money for himself: This gibes with Tony Heilbut’s account of Sam’s generosity toward Cheeks in Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Tim
es, p. 125. “The first $500 bill I ever had,” said Cheeks, “Sam gave it to me. . . . [Of all the r&b singers] Sam’s the only one treated me right.”
381 “Soothe Me” . . . was just beginning to break into the charts: The record was referred to as “hitting nationally” in Cash Box, September 9, where it was also listed at number 32 on the “Looking Ahead” chart. SAR ran a small ad in the September 23 issue with a one-word text, “Tremendous!!!” The session to record “I’ll Never Come Running Back to You” was held on August 15, almost certainly with J.W. alone supervising. It replaced “(Don’t Fight It) Feel It” on the B-side of the single in September.
382 who was going to close the show: Both June Gardner and Lithofayne Pridgon recalled the specifics of this date.
382 This was how he earned his living: New York Sunday News, July 16, 1961.
383 “I feel that we left our discussions in New York”: Letter from Bob Yorke to Jess Rand, June 8, 1961. In a March 1, 1962, intra-office communication, Yorke wrote: “The last time I talked to Sam was regarding a contract and terms which he subsequently refused. It was not a friendly conversation.”
384 The lawsuit that they had filed: This was still B. Wolf v. Rex Productions, Inc., No. 741782, California Superior Court, originally filed March 16, 1960. At the time of filing, Sam and J.W.’s claims amounted to only $13,000 in publishing and artist royalties due through December 31, 1959, but as the case wended its way through the courts, sales records were demanded for all of Sam’s recordings through February 15, 1961. With the success of “Wonderful World” in particular, the new filing had the potential to triple the amount involved, and the trial was scheduled to start on October 2.
386 Sam had found a new home: In addition to interviews with J.W. and Barbara, probate records from California Superior Court, In the Matter of the Estate of Glen Glenn, Deceased, No. 433, 391, October 27, 1961, supplied the specifics of the purchase.
387 Lew Chudd had decided to bid against him: I’ve never understood why Lew Chudd got involved, and J.W.’s chuckle in response to my questions indicated that to him it was a matter of little consequence, perhaps not much more than a practical joke.
388 the record was reviewed in both Billboard and Cash Box: Billboard, November 27, 1961; the Cash Box review and squib were in the December 2 issue.
388 RCA finally called: The first written record of the deal that I could find in the RCA files was December 18, 1961, but clearly talks had preceded it. Bob Yorke’s subsequent in-house correspondence indicates that Luigi Creatore served as Sam and Alex’s go-between.
389 a new gospel-based show called Black Nativity: There is a tangled history to this, which is detailed in part in Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, vol. 2, I Dream a World, pp. 347-354. My understanding of Jess Rand’s part (and Sam’s)—including Michael Santangelo’s offer of a financial stake in the show to Jess if Jess would move east—comes from interviews with Jess Rand. In the end, said Jess with some asperity, “I got a thank-you, not a piece.” The thank-you consisted of a note at the front of the program for all productions to the effect that the producer, Michael R. Santangelo, “had become interested in gospel songs four years before, through recording artist Sam Cooke, a former gospel singer, and his mentor, Jess Rand.”
389 The Denise Somerville paternity suit: Court records, going back to the original filing in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court in 1958, as Case No. 178794, along with the subsequent Agreement and Release.
390 Sam happened to catch a television show: The inspiration for “Twistin’ the Night Away” is a well-known story that comes primarily from interviews with J.W. Alexander but is also told by Sam in Chris Roberts, “Doesn’t That Gospel Music Just Swing!” Melody Maker, October 20, 1962.
392 “Barbara Cooke . . . is already down to a size (7)”: Gertrude Gipson, “Candid Comments,” Los Angeles Sentinel, January 4, 1962.
BOOGIE-WOOGIE RUMBLE
393 “it was kind of tense at times”: Bill Dahl, “Dion: Forever the King of the New York Streets,” Goldmine, March 9, 2001. Also, Dion DiMucci with Davin Seay, The Wanderer: Dion’s Story, p. 81.
395 what had landed him in Newport: Charles Brown’s Newport hegira, and the writing of “I Want to [alternatively, “I Wanna”] Go Home,” is well covered in Rick Coleman’s 1988 interview; a 1991 interview supplied by Howell Begle from Charles Brown: A Life in the Blues (Rounder DVD 11661-2074); Chip Deffaa, Blue Rhythms, pp. 124-127; Billy Vera 1999 liners to Blue Over You (Westside 610), a CD anthology of Brown’s Ace sides; and John Anthony Brisbin, “Charles Brown: the Living Blues Interview,” Living Blues 118, November/ December 1994.
398 Johnnie was still debating: In John Broven and Cilla Huggins’ 1989 interview with Johnnie Taylor, he said: “Bobby Robinson told me, ‘He ain’t gonna promote you.’ And he was right about that.” He expressed a more restrained ambivalence in his 1986 interview in Living Blues 153.
403 the Pla-Mor Ballroom in Cleveland: Cleveland Call & Post, August 26, 1961.
403 “We all cried”: Barbara Cooke interview with Friendly Womack Jr. All subsequent quotes from Friendly are from this interview.
404 they signed their new contract: The contract was dated June 1, 1962.
405 He pitched the song excitedly: I had three principal interview sources for this account: June Gardner, Grady Gaines, and J.W. Alexander. No one could understand Dee Clark’s reason for rejecting the song. Interestingly, Clark had already recorded “Cupid” (as an LP cut) and “The Time Has Come,” one of Sam’s earliest compositions, and went on to cowrite “TCB” with Sam not much later.
406 Barbara and Sugar Hall started to do a slow twist: Walter E. Hurst and William Storm Hale, The Music Industry Book, p. 3214.
407 “We were after the Soul Stirrers-type thing”: Steve Propes interview with René Hall, 1987.
407 Rickwood Field employed “Negro citizens”: Birmingham World, April 21, 1962.
408 “the word of the hour”: J. Gillison: “They Call It ‘Soul Music,’” Philadelphia Tribune, September 8, 1962.
408 “Oh, we all heard it”: Gerri Hirshey, Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music, p. 110.
408 Sam Cooke’s Twistin the Night Away Revue: Jet, June 7, 1962.
410 Sam took Johnnie Morisette out on tour: Johnnie signed a contract with Malloy Management, the management division of Kags Music Corp., on April 24, 1962.
411 “I was living in California”: Tim Schuller, “The Johnnie ‘Two-Voice’ Story: Johnnie Morisette,” Living Blues 49, winter 1980-1981, p. 25 (condensed). All additional quotes from Johnnie Morisette are from this interview.
411 “Welcome NAACP Convention”: Atlanta Daily World, July 1, 1962.
411 “he rushed feverishly to a closing, four-word slogan”: Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, pp. 598-600.
412 “I have always had a rather bright insight on business”: Alphonso S. McLean, “Sam Cooke Wows ’Em in Savannah, Georgia, Show,” Chicago Defender, July 24, 1962.
412 Sam was playing three nights at the Knight Beat: Miami Times, July 14, 1962.
415 Cook, a “popular and dynamic nationally known promoter”: Joe Rainey, “Seen and Heard,” Philadelphia Tribune, October 22, 1960.
415 “entertainer Johnnie Morisette [would] be affiliated”: Paul McGee, “Theatricals,” Los Angeles Sentinel, July 26, 1962.
415 “Well, partner, let’s go to New York”: J.W. said this took place just before Sam’s tour of England in October. In Maureen Cleave’s “Disc Date” in the London Evening Standard, Sam is referred to as “the owner” of a beer company—though, of course, it’s entirely possible that this information was gleaned from a recent publicity release, not from the interview itself. The beer company offices were the subject of a numbers raid “a month” after Sam got involved, according to an article in the Baltimore Afro-American, November 18, 1962, cited in Daniel Wolff with S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum, You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cook
e, p. 251. Five months later, however, Cooke’s Beer was still being advertised in the Norfolk Journal and Guide, April 13, 1963, as the beer that was “brewed with pure artesian well water” and could boast of “Sam Cooke, President.” I don’t know any way to resolve these contradictions except to say that J.W.’s testimony was almost always accurate to the day and that in any case, in terms of the spirit of the business’ conclusion, we can certainly take J.W. at his word.
ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT
419 “Unconfirmed rumors swept the Eastern seaboard”: Art Peters, “Sam Cooke Illness Rumor Hotly Denied,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 11, 1962. Reports also showed up in the Los Angeles Sentinel, August 2; Washington DC Afro-American, August 25 and September 1; Norfolk Journal and Guide, September 8; and Cleveland Call, September 8, among others.
419 “one of the meanest and lowest canards”: Los Angeles Sentinel, February 28, 1963.
419 Jerry Brandt was still vehemently denying: Chuck Stone, “Sam Cooke NOT Ill or Dying,” Washington DC Afro-American, August 25, 1962 (lead front-page story). One week later the same reporter led with: “Sam Cooke is neither dying nor ill, says his New York office.”
419 everything from “low salaries to lack of employment opportunities”: William Barlow, Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio, p. 219. This is by far the best written source for an insight into the development of black radio, but much of its interview material comes from Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was, a Smithsonian series produced by Jacquie Gales Webb for National Public Radio, which is essential listening. My interviews with Jimmy “Early” Byrd, Larry McKinley, Georgie Woods, and Harold Battiste bore out much of the general import of these two sources and helped fill in some of the gaps.
419 “We partied until it was time to go to church”: Barlow, Voice Over, p. 220. All other quotes from “Jockey” Jack Gibson are from the same source.
Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke Page 88
