Album review

Sam Cooke With The Soul Stirrers - The Complete Specialty Recordings

Sam Cooke was with the top gospel a cappella group The Soul Stirrers between 1950 and 1956, before leaving Specialty to join the Keen label and record his first secular hit, "You Send Me". The 84 tracks assembled on this fine three-disc collection represent everything Cooke did with The Soul Stirrers, including a 20-minute live set at LA's Shrine Auditorium in 1955. Prime gospel, many of these tracks are classics. With an excellent sleevenote by Daniel Wolff, this is an historic anthology.

Rating: 4 / 10


Newsletter


Editor's Letter

Bruce Springsteen, Tame Impala, Rodriguez, George Clinton, John Fogerty, Prince and George Jones in new Uncut


I would have bought the issue of Melody Maker in which I first read about Bruce Springsteen on my way into the art school in Newport, where in March 1973 I was in my last term, only a few months away from moving to London and not long after that fetching up on MM as a junior reporter/feature...

More >>