Sam Cooke Trivia | 95 facts about the famous soul singer

Sam Cooke was an American singer, songwriter and enterpreneur. He is considered to be one of the most influencial soul artists of all time.

He is currently one of the four figures that appear in the new film “One Night in Miami” which explores his friendship with Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Jim Browm.

Let’s find out some trivia and facts about his life and carerr.

1. His full name was Samuel Cook
2. He was born on January 22, 1931
3. He died on December 11, 1964
4. He was known professionally as Sam Cooke
5. Cooke was an American singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur
6. He is considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time
7. Cooke is commonly referred to as the King of Soul
8. This title was attributed to him because of his distinctive vocals, notable contributions to the genre and high significance in popular music
9. Cooke was born in Mississippi
10. He later relocated to Chicago with his family at a young age
11. There he began singing as a child
12. He joined the Soul Stirrers as lead singer in the 1950s
13. Going solo in 1957, Cooke released a string of hit songs
14. His hit songs include “You Send Me”, “A Change Is Gonna Come”, “Cupid”, “Wonderful World”, “Chain Gang”, “Twistin’ the Night Away”, “Bring It On Home to Me”, and “Good Times”
15. During his eight year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Pop Singles chart
16. As well as 20 singles in the Top Ten of Billboard’s Black Singles chart
17. In 1964, Cooke was shot and killed by the manager of a motel in Los Angeles
18. After an inquest and investigation, the courts ruled Cooke’s death to be a justifiable homicide
19. His family has since questioned the circumstances of his death
20. Cooke’s pioneering contributions to soul music contributed to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Billy Preston, and popularized the work of Otis Redding and James Brown
21. AllMusic biographer Bruce Eder wrote that Cooke was “the inventor of soul music”, and possessed “an incredible natural singing voice and a smooth, effortless delivery that has never been surpassed”
22. Cooke was also a central part of the civil rights movement
23. Using his influence and popularity with the white and Black population to fight for the cause
24. He was good friends with boxer Muhammad Ali, activist Malcolm X and football player Jim Brown
25. Together, they campaigned for racial equality
26. This friendship was explored in the play/film: “One Night in Miami”
27. He added the “e” to his last name in 1957 to signify a new start to his life
28. He was the fifth of eight children of the Rev. Charles Cook, a minister in the Church of Christ (Holiness), and his wife, Annie Mae
29. One of his younger brothers, L.C., later became a member of the doo-wop band Johnny Keyes and the Magnificents
30. Sam Cooke began his career with his siblings in a group called the Singing Children when he was six years old
31. He first became known as lead singer with the Highway Q.C.’s when he was a teenager, having joined the group at the age of 14
32. During this time, Cooke befriended fellow gospel singer and neighbor Lou Rawls, who sang in a rival gospel group
33. Cooke had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964
34. He had three more posthumously
35. Major hits like “You Send Me”, “A Change Is Gonna Come”, “Cupid”, “Chain Gang”, “Wonderful World”, “Another Saturday Night”, and “Twistin’ the Night Away” are some of his most popular songs
36. Twistin’ the Night Away was one of his biggest selling albums
37. Cooke was also among the first modern Black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career
38. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer
39. He also took an active part in the Civil Rights Movement
40. Cooke was married twice
41. His first marriage was to singer-dancer Dolores Elizabeth Milligan Cook, who took the stage name “Dee Dee Mohawk” in 1953
42. They divorced in 1958
43. She was killed in an auto collision in Fresno, California in 1959
44. Although he and Dolores were divorced, Cooke paid for his ex-wife’s funeral expenses
45. She was survived by her son Joey
46. In 1958, Cooke married his second wife, Barbara Campbell, in Chicago
47. His father performed the ceremony
48. They had three children, Linda, Tracy and Vincent
49. Vincent drowned in the family swimming pool
50. Less than three months after Cooke’s death, his widow, Barbara, married his friend Bobby Womack
51. Womack sexually abused Cooke’s daughter, Linda
52. Linda married Womack’s brother, Cecil Womack
53. They became the duo Womack & Womack
54. Cooke also fathered at least three other children out of wedlock
55. In 1958, a woman in Philadelphia, Connie Bolling, claimed Cooke was the father of her son
56. Cooke paid her an estimated $5,000 settlement out of court
57. In November 1958, Cooke was involved in a car accident en route from St. Louis to Greenville
58. His chauffeur Edward Cunningham was killed
59. While Cooke, guitarist Cliff White, and singer Lou Rawls were hospitalized
60. Cooke was killed at the age of 33 on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel, in Los Angeles, California
61. Answering separate reports of a shooting and a kidnapping at the motel, police found Cooke’s corpse
62. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, which was later determined to have pierced his heart
63. The motel’s manager, Bertha Franklin, claimed to have shot him in self-defense
64. Her account was immediately disputed by Cooke’s acquaintances
65. The official police record states that Franklin fatally shot Cooke, who had checked in earlier that evening
66. Franklin said that Cooke had banged on the door of her office, shouting “Where’s the girl?!”
67. Franklin shouted back that there was no one in her office except herself, but an enraged Cooke did not believe her and forced his way into the office, naked except for one shoe and a sport jacket
68. He grabbed her, demanding again to know the woman’s whereabouts
69. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve a gun
70. She said she then fired at Cooke in self-defense because she feared for her life
71. Cooke was struck once in the torso
72. According to Franklin, he exclaimed, “Lady, you shot me”, in a tone that expressed perplexity rather than anger, before advancing on her again
73. She said she hit him in the head with a broomstick before he finally fell to the floor and died
74. A coroner’s inquest was convened to investigate the incident
75. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night several minutes before Carr had
76. Boyer had called from a telephone booth near the motel
77. Some of Cooke’s family and supporters, however, have rejected Boyer’s version of events, as well as those given by Franklin and Carr
78. They believe that there was a conspiracy to murder Cooke and that the murder took place in some manner entirely different from the three official accounts
79. No concrete evidence supporting a criminal conspiracy has been presented to date
80. The first funeral service for Cooke was held on December 18, 1964, at A. R. Leak Funeral Home in Chicago where 200,000 fans lined up for more than four city blocks to view his body
81. In 1986, Cooke was inducted as a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
82. In 1987, Cooke was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
83. In 1989, Cooke was inducted a second time to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the Soul Stirrers were inducted
84. On February 1, 1994, Cooke received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the music industry, located on 7051 Hollywood Boulevard
85. Although Cooke never won a Grammy Award, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, presented by Larry Blackmon of funk super-group Cameo
86. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Cooke 16th on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”
87. In 2008, Cooke was named the fourth “Greatest Singer of All Time” by Rolling Stone
88. In 2008, Cooke received the first plaque on the Clarksdale Walk of Fame, located at the New Roxy theater
89. In 2009, Cooke was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Clarksdale
90. In June 2011, the city of Chicago renamed a portion of East 36th Street near Cottage Grove Avenue as the honorary “Sam Cooke Way” to remember the singer near a corner where he hung out and sang as a teenager
91. In 2013, Cooke was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, at Cleveland State University
92. The founder of the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum, LaMont Robinson, said he was the greatest singer ever to sing
93. The Sam Cooke quote “A Change Is Gonna Come” is on a wall of the Contemplative Court, a space for reflection in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
94. The museum opened in 2016
95. Cooke is inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame