Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke (120 page)

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 Cooke,
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.

419
“It was just an idea of camaraderie”: This is from my interview with Larry McKinley. Georgie Woods made the same point in almost identical words.

420
“You have to understand”: Barlow,
Voice Over,
p. 209.

421
Crain had his money and briefcase stolen:
St. Louis Argus,
August 24, 1962; also UPI story, August 21.

422
“I was also informed by Sam”: Oscar Alexander, “Diggin’ Daddy-Oh!”
The Carolinian,
October 6, 1962.

423
right up until opening night he was uncertain: In addition to my interviews with Don Arden and J.W. Alexander, Charles White describes in
The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock,
pp. 107-108, how Arden took out advertisements in the music press in September to reassure the public that “Little Richard has been booked purely as a rock artist,” with further specifics on just which of his rock ’n’ roll hits he would sing.

423
J.W. accompanied Sam to Arden’s hotel: To be fair, Arden recalled this in one interview as a telephone conversation, in another as this meeting. But the impression Sam (and J.W.) made, both then and subsequently, was clear.

424
Richard was wearing what looked . . . like religious robes: Chris Hutchins, “Little Richard Is Amazing!”
New Musical Express,
October 12, 1962, described Little Richard’s outfit as a “large, baggy white suit”; Arden remembered it as black monk’s robes.

425
Most of the audiences were there for Richard: Various British fans have described the shows to me (and their own preference for Little Richard), including Bill Millar (Maidstone), and Dave Williams (Kingston). Charles White writes about the Mansfield show in
The Life and Times of Little Richard,
p. 113, and Brian J. Hamblin’s letter to
Now Dig This!
235 (October 2002) describes the Bristol performance. At the prompting of Val Wilmer, I spoke to Ian Pickstock, who recalled a much-of-the-night party that Sam and Richard had with the cast of
Black Nativity.

427
“he
hypnotized
the audience”: Dave Williams described a similar effect as Sam mesmerized “all these rockers” just by waving his handkerchief round and round.

428
Sam had simply “dreamed up” another hit: “As Sam Cooke Dreams Up a Song in London,”
New Musical Express,
” n.d.

428
Sam also spoke to
Melody Maker
: Chris Roberts, “Doesn’t That Gospel Music Just Swing!”
Melody Maker,
October 20, 1962.

429
Dressed in “red-patterned pyjamas”: Maureen Cleave, “Disc Date,”
Evening Standard,
n.d.

431
At the heart of the new act: The attentive reader will note that the show I am describing is available on
Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club
(RCA [BMG] 5181). The reason I have used this with some confidence as my model is because J.W. Alexander was emphatic that this was the show Sam introduced at the Apollo. The brief reference in the
Philadelphia Tribune,
December 8, 1962, tends to bear out just how notable a departure the show was for Sam.

433
“his rapport with the femmes”:
Variety,
November 7, 1962.

436
he played a WAOK benefit: This remains something of a mystery, as the tape never surfaced. When I met Zenas Sears in 1984, it certainly existed, but I don’t know what has become of it since his death. Zenas recalled L.C. Cooke as being part of the show. An article by Thelma Hunt Shirley in the
Chicago Defender,
December 16, 1964, “Friends, Fans Chorus ‘Sam Was a Good Guy,’” has a DJ named Ed Cooke, formerly of Atlanta, talking about a kids’ benefit show there. Grady Gaines of the Upsetters recalled an Atlanta date being recorded, and J.W. remembered the show, though he thought it was at the Royal Peacock. William Morris’ booking schedule has Sam playing the Rhythm Rink on November 13, 1962, but I could find no advertisement for it.

439
Olsie Robinson (“Bassy”) walked out of a sound check: Everyone agrees that Bassy stopped playing for Sam, but no one can quite agree on the date or reason. Bobby Womack, Grady Gaines, Gorgeous George, and June Gardner all had their own take on the situation, but there is no question that Bobby started playing more and more regularly with Sam from late 1962 on.

440
they had less than $100 among them: Bobby, Friendly Jr., Cecil, and Curtis Womack all recalled the tour (Friendly in his interview with Barbara Cooke). Once again timing is something of an issue, and I have never been able to find a listing for the Birmingham show with Tall Paul on which Johnnie Taylor, the Sims Twins, and possibly Johnnie Morisette were also on the bill. But all of the Womacks appeared to agree that it was before their session in California in December 1962.