Portrait Of A Legend: Sam Cooke: Amazon.co.uk: Music

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1. Touch The Hem Of His Garment
2. Lovable
3. You Send Me
4. Only Sixteen
5. (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
6. Just For You
7. Win You Love For Me
8. Everybody Love To Cha Cha Cha
9. I'll Come Running Back To You
10. You Were Made For Me
11. Sad Mood
12. Cupid
13. (What A) Wonderful World
14. Chain Gang
15. Summertime
16. Little Red Rooster
17. Bring It On Home To Me
18. Nothing Can Change This Love
19. Sugar Dumpling
20. (Ain't That) Good News
See all 30 tracks on this disc

Product Description

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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23 Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)

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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pioneer of soul music, 5 Nov 2004

By

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
(No. 1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 (Audio CD)

Whether Sam really was the first soul singer as some people claim, I'm not sure, though he has a strong claim to the title. In any event, this is an excellent collection of his music.

Sam made his breakthrough with You send me, which went all the way to number one in America (where it sold a couple of million) though it barely made the top thirty in Britain. In the fifties, when music was often racially segregated, this was quite an achievement. Sam was well aware of the problems, as is clear from his song, A change is gonna come. The change did come (to some extent, at least) though Sam, murdered aged just 33, did not live to see it.

Another important American hit, Only sixteen, fared slightly better than You send me in the UK despite being covered by Craig Douglas who took the song to the very top of the UK charts. Sam's version of Wonderful world, another huge American hit, again only registered in the UK top thirty at the time of its original release, though Brits grew to love this song, with Louis Armstrong and Herman's Hermits both having big hits in the sixties. Sam's version made number two in the UK when re-issued in 1986.

Sam finally achieved success in the UK when Chain gang, Cupid and Twisting the night away all made the top ten. Only two more UK hits followed - Another Saturday night (which Cat Stevens covered in the seventies) and Frankie and Johnny (not included here), both of which made the top thirty. However, Sam had many more (and bigger) hits in his homeland, where his music was better appreciated. There are many other great songs here, too numerous to mention.

This is a better compilation than the earlier one titled The man and his music, featuring more tracks, extensive liner notes and even better sound quality. Many of the songs are the same but there are a few differences, although all the essentials are on both collections.

If you enjoy Sam's music, this is the best compilation yet released. If you are new to his music, you are in for a real treat if you buy this. Sam's role in the development of soul music cannot be over-estimated.

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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Golden tenor of "Soul" re-born..., 2 Dec 2003

By

Milt Ingarfield "milt_fm" (Arbroath, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 (Audio CD)

This release is another of the outstanding archive renovations that brought the world "The Rolling Stones" re-issues in 2002.

Yet again the same team that brought the world that restoration has done this compliation of "Sam Cooke's" recordings from 1951-1964.
The mastering process was done by the awesome "Bob Ludwig",who has in the past done such re-issues as "Roxy Muisc's" and the solo recordings of "Bryan Ferry"(this "Mr Ludwig" did in 1999).

What they have released is a hybrid disc that has 2 layers of data,1 layer for playing on a standard C.D. player and the other layer for SACD players.
The sound quality that this has acheived is just jaw dropping it's so good, gone is the thin weedy sound of the past re-issues of this star's music,now the tracks have a warmer purer seductive sound that "Sam" voice was famous for.
The tracks sound like they were recorded just yesterday and not way back last century.

The song that opens the collection "Touch the hem of his Garment" recorded in 1956 and was written by the artist sets the tone for this anthology of 30 tracks, 24 of which "Sam" wrote "Twistin' the night Away" still makes me want to get up and dance every time I hear it, even more so with the clearer handclap sounds.
If you loved the sound of "Sam Cooke" before you will absolutely adore this collection, the details the listener can hear are incredible.
This collection is for soul fans everywhere,a must have for your music collection...

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where it all began, 26 Sep 2006

By

Andrew Fawcett (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Portrait Of A Legend (Audio CD)

Sorry to correct the previous reviewer, but Sam Cooke's 'Wonderful World, was emphaticaly NOT the same song made famous by Louis Armstrong. This was called 'What a Wonderful World, and was a very different proposition from Sam's offering. As for Herman's Hermits......
Soul fans wil know that the best cover version of this tune was the one by Otis Redding. In fact, Otis covered many of Cooke's songs , including 'Shake' and a 'Change is Gonna Come'( the latter arguably topping even Sam's version)

Anyway, factual quibbles apart, this CD documents an important slice of Sam Cooke's output.He was, unquestionably one of the most influential singers ever, and not just in the soul field. Rod Stewart fans will find Sam's vocal fingerprints all over his singing. Sam Cooke's early death was was not only a tragedy for music lovers, just think, if he had lived we might have been spared Rod Stewart.Now there's a thought.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Bring it on home
Like Buddy Holly and Otis Redding, Sam Cooke was only with us for a short time. How much more he might have achieved we'll never know. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Dangerous Dave