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Portrait Of A Legend | 
 enlarge | Artist: Sam Cooke
Label: U.M.T.V.
Category: Music
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £8.43
You Save: £3.56 (30%)
New (6) Used (2) from £8.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 4798
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 78
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.8 x 0.4
UPC: 602498724187
EAN: 0602498724187
ASIN: B0009R34R0
Release Date: July 24, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| » | Touch The Hem Of His Garment - Sam Cooke, The Soul Stirrers | | » | Lovable | | » | You Send Me | | » | Only Sixteen | | » | (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons | | » | Just For You | | » | Win Your Love For Me | | » | Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha | | » | I'll Come Running Back To You | | » | You Were Made For Me | | » | Sad Mood | | » | Cupid | | » | Wonderful World | | » | Chain Gang | | » | Summertime | | » | Little Red Rooster | | » | Bring It On Home To Me | | » | Nothing Can Change This Love | | » | Sugar Dumpling | | » | (Ain't That) Good News | | » | Meet Me At Mary's Place | | » | Twistin' The Night Away | | » | Shake | | » | Tennessee Waltz | | » | Another Saturday Night | | » | Good Times | | » | Having A Party | | » | That's Where It's At | | » | A Change Is Gonna Come | | » | Jesus Gave Me Water - Sam Cooke, The Soul Stirrers | | » | Soul |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Some 46 years after his first pop hit, and 39 years after his death, comes only the second attempt at a comprehensive Sam Cooke collection. Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964 eclipses RCA's early-80s The Man And His Music. From 1951's Soul Stirrers' gospel classic "Touch The Hem Of His Garment" through to 1964's "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Shake," we get highlights of Cooke's career presented in state-of-the-art digital audio; superior in every way possible to the audio quality of The Man And His Music. What's more, this is a hybrid disc with SACD capability, and the sound on that layer is almost as much of a jump above the quality on the CD layer as this remastering is from the old The Man And His Music disc; and either the standard CD or the SACD playback makes that 1980s-issued compilation sound faint and anaemic. There's also annotation here--which was totally lacking on the earlier CD--by Peter Guralnick, which delve very effectively into the background of each song. And the producers have taken the trouble to be a little inventive in the programming--it would have been easy enough to follow a strict chronological approach, but instead the disc opens and closes with tracks that reveal Cooke's gospel roots; which is pretty much where his music started and where it ended up, bookending his first hit with songs from his first session ever. --Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 The best soul singer March 26, 2008
Sam Cooke was a musical genius. As a performer, singer and songwriter he excelled and surpassed all his competitors. This essential compilation (Only When a boy falls in love is missing among these best songs) shows his development, his growing from gospel and pop gems to A change is gonna come, one of the best songs in history. His style of singing is so awesome it may take a few listening to realize in full, because it's done with such ease that is almost a miracle. His effortless melisma, his golden tone, his "feeling" (after all, that's what soul music is about) are haunting, as so many singers who try (in vain) to match it, even in our days, show. More than 40 years after his death, songs like You send me, Chain gang, Wonderful world (I fell in love with it thanks to "Witness", of course), Cupid (And with this one thanks to "Innerspace"), and of course A change is gonna come still sound fresh and gloriously beautiful. Only if you have all the songs of this set already you shouldn't buy the CD. For the rest of the world, there are no excuses to miss it.
A Real Legend! August 21, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I first tried a Sam Cooke album about a year ago and was surprised that I already knew the vast majority of the songs. Again and again I found myself listening to a particular track and before ten seconds had past I'd be thinking 'Wow, I didn't know he wrote that one!'. I'd heard a number of versions of 'Chain Gang' for instance but never Cooke's original which incidentally is by far the best.
The man's vocal range and talent is just awesome as he demonstrates on 'Touch The Hem Of His Garment' in an early gospel record. But songs like 'You Send Me', 'Only Sixteen', 'Cupid', '(What A) Wonderful World', 'Chain Gang', 'Twistin' The Night Away' and of course the masterful 'A Change Is Gonna Come' (Cooke's response to Bob Dylan's 'Blowin in the Wind') show what a truly great song writer he was as well as a singer.
Who knows what he might have achieved had he lived longer!. Altogether this is an excellent collection of songs that are well worth getting hold of.
You Send Me.... June 13, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This man is a gold-plated soul legend, who was also savvy enough to set up his own label and nurture other black recording artists, such as Bobby Womack. Initially a gospel superstar, he, like many before and after, successfully crossed over into the fledgling pop charts, merging gospel and pop and becoming huge.
His voice is surely one of the most beautiful ever committed to vinyl. This collection does a fantastic job of summarising Cooke's tragically curtailed career, and for newcomer and fan alike, is the best collection out there.
As a footnote, I must add to the debate on 'A Change Is Gonna Come', Cooke's response to hearing Dylan's 'Blowin' In The Wind' and an example of his interest in other genres. I am a massive Otis Redding fan, but his version is a poor relation to Sam's effort - this is his last recorded song and his finest few minutes, a tantalising hint of what he may acheived had he not been gunned down.
Buy it.
The greatest soul singer, the finest songs... November 29, 2006
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Since the 1980s issue of "The Man And His Music" it has been hard to get hold of a comprehensive Sam Cooke compilation. This makes a very fine effort, starting with sublime gospel of "Touch The Hem Of His Garment", this takes a fascinating journey through the classic perfect pop of much of Mr Cooke's output to the sombre, majestic, stunning "A Change Is Gonna Come". The definitive version of this song is here. Aretha does it well, Otis does it well, The Neville Brothers did it ok and even Beverley Knight did a respectable version on "Later With Jools Holland..." This is the definitive version.
The man's voice is pure gold, his songwriting pen is instinctive and contained herein is some of the greatest pop music ever made, some of the finest soul and one of the greatest songs recorded in the last fifty years.
Peter Guralnack's excellent liner notes are a bonus.
All things to all men November 9, 2006
Sam Cooke's first single in the U K was You send me which sold enough as to warrant earlier tracks being issued from a previous label.By the time of Only Sixteen Cooke had surprisingly made a move into high school territory but the record suffered here through a number of cover versions with Craig Douglas topping the charts.
Chain Gang was the first sizeable hit and saw the Ronnie Carroll cover off and the following year came hits like Cupid.
1962 was his greatest year to my mind as he made some great Twist records and that great song Nothing will ever change our love.
Cooke actually made a version of Little Red Rooster which featured Billy Preston-a year later the Stones made it.
His death left behind a double sided hit Shake/A change is gonna come-this song forecasted Martin Luther King and the events later in the decade.
The hits would still come years later-when Wonderful World was used in a TV commercial in 1986 he had his biggest hit as the single made No 2.
The song was bigger in the States for Herman's Hermits in the 60s just after Cooke's death and it inspired at least one nice copy in Biology by Danny Valentino
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