Soulsters sam cooke biography

Born January 22, (some sources say or ), in Chicago, Ill.; died of gunshot wounds, December 11, , in Los Angeles, Calif.; son of Charles (a Baptist minister); married Barbara Campbell, October Education: Attended Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, Ill.

Soul singer Sam Cooke was acclaimed as "a bravura vocal stylist who blazed the path for a generation of singers from Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett to Aretha Franklin and Al Green," by Jim Miller in Newsweek. A prominent feature on the music scene from the early s, when he sang with the black gospel group the Soul Stirrers, through a solo pop career that ended when he was shot to death in late , Cooke "became famous for letting his voice glide over every syllable of a song in a sustained lyrical caress," according to Miller.

Popular with black and white audiences alike, Cooke--who wrote most of his own material--is remembered for such hit songs as "You Send Me," "Only Sixteen," "Wonderful World," "Cupid," and "Chain Gang."