Late one recent night as I was driving home from one of my music encounters I slipped in a Sam Cooke cd. Sadly Cooke was killed in 1964 so many of you probably don't know of Cooke. You should have. I wish Hollywood would do a movie on his life. Denzil Washington would be perfect to play this role. Perfect.
If Cooke were still living today he would be eighty-four years old. Does not seem possible. He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1931 but shortly thereafter his family moved to Chicago. If you are a product of the late 50s' and early 60s' you remember such songs Cooke made famous like "You Send Me," "Wonderful World," "Chain Gang," "Twistin' The Night Away," "Only Sixteen," and many others. Near the end of his life he would record what became for many a song to be closely associated with the Civil Rights movement, "A Change Is Gonna Come."
He got his start at the young age of seventeen singing lead with the famous gospel group the "Soul Stirrers." He performed with them for six years before going out on his own. Often on a Sunday morning as my wife and I make our way to church I will slip in an old cd of Cooke and this group. It is a great way to begin a Sunday morning. They do amazing black soul gospel music.
Now what does the one dollar have to do with Cooke? When I was growing up in Indiana during my high school and college days,(late 50s'/early 60s') at the bottom of Allendale Hill on highway 41 there was a restaurant called the Terrace Inn. I can remember many a cold winter night date ending up there. I also remember when a dollar would get you and your date two cokes, an order of fries with a quarter left over. With that quarter you could get five plays on the juke box. Can you imagine a date for a dollar?
That quarter would give me five plays of Sam Cooke. The last play. Oh, that would always be his hit, "I Love You For Sentimental Reasons." Still to this day when I hear that song I think back to those days. That was a dollar well spent. Yes, well spent. You got any one dollar memories? Well maybe you will need to allow a bit for inflation but any similar such memories? I would surely hope so.
You know a lot of great things in life to be remembered don't really have to cost that much.
April 20, 2015
Keep on,
Larry Adamson