The Music Of Legends: Featuring Sam Cooke

I am feeling pretty bummed tonight so I thought I'd share my favorite music with you. First I begin with my favorite MJ song, then I am featuring the legendary Sam Cooke and ending with a song by Otis Redding (a classic!) Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He added an "e" onto the end of his name, though the reason for this is disputed. Sam was one of seven children of Annie Mae and the Reverend Charles Cook, a Baptist minister. The family moved to Chicago in 1933. In 1950, a 19-year-old Cooke replaced gospel tenor R.H. Harris as lead singer of the landmark gospel group The Soul Stirrers. Under Cooke's leadership, the group signed with Specialty Records and recorded the hits "Peace in the Valley", "How Far Am I From Canaan?", "Jesus Paid the Debt" and "One More River". Cooke's emotive singing inspired a generation of gospel-emulating pop performers in the years to come. Cooke died at the age of 33 on December 11, 1964 at the Hacienda Motel at 9137 South Figueroa in Los Angeles, California, which has since been torn down. Bertha Franklin, manager of the motel, told police that she shot and killed Cooke in self-defense because he had threatened her. Police found Cooke's body in Franklin's apartment/office, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes, but no shirt, pants or underwear. The shooting was ultimately ruled to be a justifiable homicide. (Yeah, right.) 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 that 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