Mojo Filter wrote:I'm looking to explore into the Sam Cooke catalog. I've never paid much attention to his music in the past, but with a lot of great comments about his music on forums etc i want to take a chance on buying CDs of his music.
Of course, I've heard some of his songs, mainly the hits. But apart from a greatest hits compilation, can anyone direct me to a great CD of his music?
Thanks.
To me, his best work was the earliest, when he was the lead tenor singer of the Soul Stirrers. They recorded for Specialty, with Cooke as part of the group, between 1951 and 1956. This stuff is truly superlative. Not that he was a worse singer later in his career, but his huge singing talent was never again showcased as clearly.
This 3 CD set includes everything that's available so far from this period, even his first solo, non-gospel, recordings, also done for Specialty (the undubbed versions of most of these few solo tracks are available on an Ace CD, which is also a good opiton as an introduction - see link below too) :
https://www.discogs.com/Sam-Cooke-With-The-Soul-Stirrers-The-Complete-Specialty-Recordings/release/4418492https://www.acerecords.co.uk/in-the-beginning