British artists including Leona Lewis, James Bay and Alex Francis have recorded covers of classic Sam Cooke tracks to mark the anniversary of what would have been the singer’s 90th birthday. Releasing the covers on Instagram and Twitter via the hashtag #ToastToSamCooke; former X Factor winner Lewis performed a stripped-back version of Cooke’s clarion call for social and racial justice A Change Is Gonna Come, while Bay and Francis delivered their own takes on Bring It On Home To Me and I’ll Come Running Back To You respectively.
Elsewhere Sir Rod Stewart, who scored a hit in North America with his 1987 cover of Cooke’s hit Twistin’ The Night Away, paid tribute to the soul legend on Twitter, calling the artist “my one and only influence.” The Maggie May singer posted: “How many thousands of hours I spent trying to sound like you and never came close. Without Sam, there may not have been a Rod.”
Happy Birthday, my one and only influence.
How many thousands of hours I spent trying to sound like you and never came close.
Without Sam, there may not have been a Rod.
Just think if you were still alive we could have been mates.– Sir Rod Stewart CBE
#ToastToSamCooke pic.twitter.com/QtPLOG5CwK— Sir Rod Stewart (@rodstewart) January 22, 2021
Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1931, Cooke’s early forays into music were encouraged by his father, a minister. Like so many other musicians from a Baptist background in the American south (from BB King, Chuck Berry and Little Richard to Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner), he translated his roots in gospel music into the burgeoning new frontier of blues, rock, pop and soul.
Cooke would go on to become one of the pre-eminent songwriters of the late 1950s and early 1960s; penning a plethora of stellar hit singles including Chain Gang; Cupid; Bring It On Home To Me; Wonderful World; Having A Party; You Send Me, Twistin’ The Night Away; and perhaps his most poignant and compelling number – A Change Is Gonna Come. Inspired by his own experiences of racism in the segregated south, it would go on to become an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, and in 2007 was selected for formal preservation in the US Library of Congress, with the American National Recording Registry deeming the song to be of “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance.”
A number of British and Irish artists have reaped the benefits of Cooke’s back catalogue over the years. Isle of Wight-born singer and former milkman Craig Douglas scored a UK number one single with Cooke’s track Only Sixteen in 1959, before Manchester beat-poppers Herman’s Hermits scored a top ten on both sides of the Pond with their cover of Wonderful World. Elsewhere Cat Stevens enjoyed a transatlantic of his own with Cooke’s classic ode to post-romantic doldrums Another Saturday Night in 1974; while You Send Me has been covered by the likes of Van Morrison, Steven Houghton and Fairground Attraction, as well as aforementioned Sam Cooke superfan Rod Stewart.
Cooke’s death in mysterious circumstances in 1964 deprived the industry of a seismic but flawed talent at the age of just 33. However, his rich musical legacy has lived on. The vocalist’s granddaughter Nicole Cooke-Johnson – who helped introduce the #ToastToSamCooke on social media this weekend – told People magazine that she was overwhelmed by the tributes that had been paid to her grandfather ahead of his 90th birthday, saying: “The people who were responding to participating in his toast for his birthday this weekend — I was shocked. To see all of the artists, all of the people who were influenced by him… I wish I could tell you all the countless stories I had about how his music has impacted people or influenced them.”
#ToastToSamCooke STARTS NOW with a special message from Sam’s granddaughter and steward of his legacy, Nicole Cooke-Johnson! pic.twitter.com/HH8O2yM6ud — Sam Cooke (@OfficialSCooke) January 22, 2021
Cooke’s legacy was also celebrated in Regina King’s 2020 drama One Night In Miami, which depicted a fictionalised meeting between the soul icon, Muhammad Ali, American Football star Jim Brown and Malcolm X, who is portrayed on screen by London-born actor Kingsley Ben-Adir. It became the first film directed by a female African-American director to premiere at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, and received overwhelmingly-positive critical reviews, with The Guardian hailing an “electrifying directorial debut” from King.
