Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke (112 page)

65
Where was Harris? he demanded of Crain: The story and the controversy surrounding this session come primarily from my interviews with J.W. Alexander, Pilgrim Travelers’ baritone singer Jesse Whitaker, and Art Rupe (by fax); Dred Scott Keyes’ 1996 interview with S.R. Crain; and Ray Funk’s and Lee Hildebrand’s interviews with Paul Foster, 1981 and 1984 respectively. Art Rupe’s interviews for the BBC television series
Too Close to Heaven: The Story of Gospel Music;
Barret Hansen, “The Specialty Story,”
Hit Parader,
June 1969; and the documentary CD
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records
(Ace CD 542) provided valuable insights as well.

68
He had first come to California: Background on Art Rupe, as well as a perspective on his aesthetic views and business principles, comes primarily from Billy Vera’s booklet for
The Specialty Story
(Specialty 4412), an indispensable five-CD box set. See also
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records.

69
“Gospel was my favorite type of music”:
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records.

70
a 1939 composition called “Peace in the Valley”: The history of this song is a curious one. The earliest gospel recording that I’m aware of is a 1949 version on the tiny Trilon label by the San Francisco-based Paramount Singers, led by Tiny Powell, with whom Paul Foster had sung extensively in the Bay Area before joining the Soul Stirrers. Sam’s friend Roscoe Robinson had recorded the song with the Southern Sons for the Jackson-based Trumpet label in May of 1950—but, according to Marc Ryan,
Trumpet Records: Diamonds on Farish Street,
p. 18, the masters burned up in a fire, and no copies of the record are known to have survived. Why the Stirrers recorded the song at this particular time will have to remain something of a mystery. It might have been Paul Foster’s familiarity with it, or Sam’s or Crain’s, for that matter—it could very well have been a staple on the
live
gospel circuit in Chicago. The reason that country singer Red Foley recorded it some four weeks later and the song rapidly became an across-the-board standard (Foley’s version went to number five on the country charts) is more discernible. Red Foley, like Nashville superstar Eddy Arnold, had a copublishing deal with Hill and Range Songs. Hill and Range was owned by two Viennese-born brothers, Jean and Julian Aberbach, who at this point operated primarily within the country-and-western market but would soon dominate much of pop publishing, particularly after forging a copublishing deal with Elvis Presley at the start of his career. In early 1951, according to Bar Biszick, Jean Aberbach’s biographer, the Aberbachs made their first tentative foray into gospel music, setting up an incipient publishing deal with Thomas A. Dorsey that would not be completed until August 1952. In the meantime, it would appear, they set out to expand the market for gospel songs, probably in order to prove themselves to Dorsey and to further both his interests and their own. That appears to be the reason for the sudden revival of interest in a twelve-year-old song, and it certainly helped further the song’s prominence in Elvis’ repertoire (he introduced it on
The
Ed Sullivan Show
in January 1957 and recorded it shortly thereafter). None of this impinged on the Soul Stirrers, though, whose record came out several weeks before Red Foley’s. Interestingly, Crain wrote to Art Rupe on September 14, in response to a question about the song’s authorship and publishing, and made reference to the differences between the Stirrers’ and Foley’s versions.

71
they had just sold twenty thousand copies: All sales figures, here and subsequently, are from the Specialty archives.

71
“You will think that we have gone crazy”: “Pre-release information for Distributors, Salesmen, Dealers,” entitled “
A PROMOTION PLAN TO MAKE YOU MONEY
” and sent out ca. October 1950.

71
Crain and Alex were adamant . . . that he should at least give Sam’s version a chance: J.W. Alexander said that Rupe called several months later to apologize for his reluctance to let Sam record the song (see similar letter to Crain below).

72
“Put all the showmanship that you can in your voices”: Art Rupe to John E. Myles and the Swan Silvertones, March 29, 1952.

73
Pine Bluff: The fact that this was Sam’s first program with the Stirrers was attested to again and again by both J.W. Alexander and S.R. Crain. J.W. always said that it was in December 1950, and this is borne out by the correspondence cited above, which indicates that it must have been the weekend of December 10. I have been unable, however, to find any additional listings or correspondence regarding that tour (most gospel programs were promoted on the radio and by word of mouth), and while Bob Riesman’s yeoman research in the Pine Bluff area, in pursuit of his forthcoming biography of Big Bill Broonzy, has yielded some tantalizing clues, I’m afraid concrete evidence of the actual date is still lacking.

73
“You could stand next to Archie onstage:” Dred Scott Keyes interview with J.W. Alexander, 1995.

73
“Perkins could make Archie jump offstage”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with S.R. Crain. Viv Broughton quotes an unnamed gospel star describing how Archie would “jump all the way off that balcony, down on the floor—blind!” in
Too Close to Heaven: The Illustrated History of Gospel Music,
p. 87.

74
“Our Father” [was] the kind of hit: “Our Father” actually entered
Billboard
’s Juke Box R&B Chart at number ten on December 30, 1950, a
very
rare occurrence for a gospel recording.

74
“Archie could make an audience cry”: Interview with Bobby Womack, who met the Blind Boys at a very young age at a church program.

75
Archie was the only singer out there who could make
him
cry: Interview with L.C. Cooke.

75
It was “devastating”: Interview with Leroy Crume.

75
“It wasn’t a matter of me fitting into Sam’s life”: Barbara Cooke interview with S.R. Crain, ca. 1984-1985.

75
“Sam started as a bad imitation of Harris”: Tony Heilbut,
The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times,
p. 88.

75
“‘Jesus Gave Me Water’—that’s easy”: Ray Funk interview with Paul Foster, 1981.

76
the boy’s only true “guide and protector”: Barbara Cooke interview with S.R. Crain.

76
“You could never get him up in the morning”: Terry Gross interview with S.R. Crain,
Fresh Air,
National Public Radio, March 23, 1995.

76
“Fortunately [he] went over well”: “Behind the Scenes with J.W. Alexander,”
Blues & Soul
124, p. 14.

76
a series of cheerfully hectoring letters: Art Rupe wrote to Crain on September 7, 1951, “We want to thank you for suggesting that we put out ‘Jesus Gave Me Water’ and keeping on us until we did.”

76
“Jesus Gave Me Water” was the single most requested number: Crain to Art Rupe, May 8, 1951, in a letter that speaks of having just played Orlando and Palm Beach.

78
Sam “did it in a different way”: Heilbut,
The Gospel Sound,
p. 88.

79
they had rehearsals twice a week: Much of the detail concerning the Stirrers’ day-to-day practices is from Barbara Cooke’s interview with S.R. Crain.

79
Crain became a proud “papa”: S.R. Crain to Art Rupe, September 14, 1951.

80
“a well-educated Negro lady”: Art Rupe in a letter to Brother Joe May, February 7, 1950.

80
“a young liberal who doesn’t [just] preach liberalism”: Lillian Cumber letter housed in the Barnett Collection, Chicago Historical Society, cited in Daniel Wolff with S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum,
You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke,
pp. 91-92.

81
J.W. Alexander attempted to intercede: Letter from J.W. Alexander to Lillian Cumber, May 14, 1951.

83
“We are very proud of the group”: Art Rupe to S.R. Crain, September 7, 1951.

83
“gospel singing is not only popular but very lucrative”: Charles Hopkins, “Wax and Needle,”
Chicago Defender,
October 13, 1951.

84
“a part of our American heritage”: “Wax and Needle,”
Chicago Defender,
November 3, 1951.

84
“more appropriate to more enlightened times”: Jerry Wexler and David Ritz,
Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music,
p. 62. Wexler wrote this, he says in his memoir, in a “turn-of-the-decade” essay for the
Saturday Review
but introduced the term in
Billboard
earlier in 1949.

85
“The public is crazy about them”: S.R. Crain to Art Rupe, September 14, 1951.

86
The young fellow was twenty-year-old Lloyd Price: Background on the Lloyd Price session comes primarily from my interviews with Lloyd as well as Dave Booth, “Lloyd Price, Mr. Personality,”
Goldmine,
December 17, 1991, which quotes from an interview by Ian Whitcomb. See also Bill Dahl, “Lloyd Price: ‘Mr. Personality,’”
Living Blues,
September-October 1999; Seamus McGarvey, “Lloyd Price: Mr. Personality,”
Juke Blues
24; and Billy Vera liner notes to Specialty CDs
Lawdy!
and
Heavy Dreams
(Specialty 7010 and 7047).

87
“The white retail shops began to carry it”:
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records.

87
“As far as we can determine”: Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, “The Latest Trend: R&B Disks Are Going Pop,”
Cash Box,
July 3, 1954.

90
Five thousand singers from all over:
Los Angeles Sentinel,
August 7, 1952.

91
Mahalia Jackson announced: “Mahalia Jackson Will Tour Europe With Her Famous ‘Gospel Train,’”
Chicago Defender,
August 9, 1952.

91
[she] would sell out Carnegie Hall once again: John Hammond, “Gospel Singers’ Progress from Churches to Carnegie,” November 19, 1952 (no further information), in Opal Louis Nations’ liner notes to the 3-CD
Mahalia Jackson: How I Got Over / The Apollo Sessions
(Westside 303).

92
the European tour he had announced: Galen Gart,
First Pressings: The History of Rhythm & Blues,
1951, p. 38, datelined April 7.

93
Crain clucked that Sam was going to have to learn: Barbara Cooke interview with S.R. Crain.

THE FURTHER EDUCATION OF SAM COOK

94
“He just floated under”: Daniel Wolff, with S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum,
You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke,
p. 101.

94
Crain sometimes ascribed the transforming moment: Dred Scott Keyes interview with S.R. Crain, 1996.

95
“I am indeed very sorry”: Art Rupe to S.R. Crain, February 9, 1953.

97
a “full-fledged trend”: Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, “The Latest Trend: R&B Disks Are Going Pop,”
Cash Box,
July 3, 1954.

97
a detailed memo that covered everything: Billy Vera booklet accompanying the five-CD box set
The Specialty Story
(Specialty 4412), p. 8; also see
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records
(Ace CD 542).

97
He was paying money to get his records played: Billy Vera notes to Don and Dewey CD,
Jungle Hop
(Specialty 7008). Vera quotes from correspondence between Rupe and Alan Freed from 1953 to 1955, expressing for the most part Rupe’s “disappointment” and disillusionment, and Vera cites payola as one of Art’s principal reasons for eventually leaving the business.

98
he had produced, “I’d say ninety-five percent”:
In His Own Words: Art Rupe—The Story of Specialty Records.

98
They were out with the Five Blind Boys: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, April 25 and May 14, 1953.

98
set “attendance records”:
Los Angeles Sentinel,
June 25, 1953.

98
A 1948 program in Newark: Lee Hildebrand and Opal Louis Nations, liner notes to
The Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama: The Sermon
(Specialty CD 7041). See also Geoffrey Himes, “The Five Blind Boys of Alabama,”
No Depression,
May-June 2001.

99
as J.W. wrote to Art in April: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, April 25, 1953.

99
Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys . . . took pretty much the same view: Their view is based primarily on my interviews with Clarence Fountain and Johnny Fields.

102
“She was a pretty girl”: Wolff,
You Send Me,
p. 104.