Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke (114 page)

149
Fats Domino and Frankie Lymon were headlining: The Paramount’s gross and Fats Domino’s
Steve Allen Show
appearance are documented in Lee Cotten,
Reelin’ & Rockin’: The Golden Age of American Rock ’n Roll,
vol. 2, 1956-1959.

149
“the first black [-owned business] on the street”: John Broven, “Bobby’s Happy House of Hits,” parts 1 and 2,
Juke Blues
15 and 16. Also, Valerie Wilmer, “Echoes: Legends of the Back Streets,”
Melody Maker,
November 18, 1978.

149
“If the rules are more important to you than the money”: Wolff,
You Send Me,
p. 138.

149
the departure of his meal ticket: Galen Gart,
First Pressings: The History of Rhythm & Blues,
1956, p. 72, which dates Bill Cook’s announcement as June 2. See also Peter Grendysa, “Never Walking Alone,”
Goldmine,
April 1979; and Roy Hamilton, “The Night I Couldn’t Find God,”
Sepia,
January 1958.

149
Bill Cook, in fact, was booked into the Apollo:
Amsterdam News,
September 8, 1956.

150
Cook cut demos on half a dozen of the “little songs”: Bill Cook’s composition “I’ll Come Running Back to You” was titled “Just Call My Name” on the tape box from this session. The tape itself survived in fractured form. It was almost entirely recorded over, so you can hear only fragments of each song, with the exception of “The Time Has Come,” which for some reason escaped intact. So far as dating is concerned, Rupe’s check for studio time was sent to Bill Cook on August 21, which might make one think that the session was held prior to the Apollo engagement, were it not for the steady lineup of Soul Stirrers dates leading up to their week in New York. My assumption, then, is that the check represented a deposit on studio time paid out to Bill Cook in advance.

150
“Gospel songs intrigued me”: “Gospel Singers in Coffee Houses,”
Sepia,
March 1960.

150
his own inclination “to look down my nose”: Interview with Bumps Blackwell, Specialty archives. All quotes through “You don’t leave religion to sing” are from this interview.

151
An artist was someone “born and endowed with talent”: Michael Ochs and Ed Pearl interview with Bumps Blackwell, 1981.

151
the first Soul Stirrers session for which he had had direct responsibility: Roy Porter, the drummer on this session, places Bumps in charge in his memoir, written with David Keller,
There and Back: The Roy Porter Story,
p. 94.

151
“So S.R. Crain was a little upset”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

152
“I had the voice, the confidence, and the equipment”: “The Private Life of Sam Cooke,”
Tan,
April 1958.

152
a low of 66,000: To indicate how precipitous a drop in income these 1955 figures represented, at their height in 1950 the Travelers sold a total of 392,000 records and earned $7,800 in royalties.

153
“I have never said you made a mistake”: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, January 27, 1957.

153
In September he wrote to Art: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, September 12, 1956.

153
he wrote to him again at the end of the month: This letter is undated but notes that J.W. will be at the same address in Houston until October 3. The coincidence that he speaks of, the resemblance between Ray Charles’ “Lonely Avenue” and Whitaker’s “I Got a New Home,” was no coincidence: they were the same song. “Ray idolized my baritone Jesse Whitaker,” J.W. said. “I had a girlfriend who had an aunt who owned the Little Hotel for Visiting Friends in Dallas. Ray used to stay there [in the early days] and come to our concerts.”

153
“It seems,” Bumps wrote at the end of the year: Bumps Blackwell to J.W. Alexander, December 28, 1956.

154
Matassa, whose family had long owned a grocery store: In addition to my own interviews with Cosimo, John Broven’s
Walkin’ to New Orleans: The Story of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues
and Rick Coleman’s research proved invaluable resources.

155
how Tony first came to Specialty: See Opal Louis Nations, “The Chicken Baby Man: The Story of Tony Harris,” parts 1 and 2,
Blues & Rhythm
115, 116.

155
Art came downstairs to the little rehearsal studio: Art Rupe told me that the idea for “Lovable” came from him brainstorming with Bumps and that Bumps engaged Tony and/or Sam to write new lyrics. He had no recollection of Bill Cook’s involvement, but it is clear from Bill Cook’s contemporary correspondence that Sam and Bill Cook had the idea long before the New Orleans session.

156
“I had a wonderful time, a wonderful life”: “The Private Life of Sam Cooke,”
Tan,
April 1958.

159
Dolores showed increasing signs of dissatisfaction and depression: Agnes Cook spoke of Dolores’ sense of insecurity and displacemement in our interviews; see also Wolff,
You Send Me.

159
Sam was about to become a father again: Much of the information on Sam and Connie Bolling’s relationship comes from their son, Keith Bolling, and his wife, Pam, to whom I was introduced by Diane Brown.

159
a potential “moneydripper”: Michael Ochs and Ed Pearl interview with Bumps Blackwell.

159
L.C. had just played Memphis with the Magnificents: In addition to my interviews with L.C. Cooke and Magnificent Montague, Johnny Keyes’
Du-Wop
provides a wonderful firsthand account.

159
“How come cullud girls would take on so”: Nat D. Williams, “Down on Beale: ‘Pied Piper’ Presley,”
Pittsburgh Courier,
December 22, 1956.

160
“I’ve got all of your records”: Keyes,
Du-Wop,
p. 60.

160
“Dear Art,” Bill Cook wrote: Bill Cook to Art Rupe, January 6, 1957.

160
“Hi Bill,” Bumps responded: Bumps Blackwell to Bill Cook, January 18, 1957.

161
“Dear Mr. Rupe,” he wrote from Detroit: J.W. Alexander to Art Rupe, January 22, 1957; Rupe’s reply of January 24, and J.W.’s subsequent response, are all in the Specialty archives, as is Bumps’ January 4, 1957, letter to Kylo Turner.

162
“just dumb and naive”: Art Rupe quoted in Billy Vera’s notes to
The Specialty Story
(Specialty 4412), p. 36.

162
He had checked up on Bumps’ credentials: Responses to his inquiries from both the Cornish School and the Office of the Registrar at the University of Washington on September 26 and September 27, 1956, respectively, are housed in the Specialty archives. They show that Bumps studied theory, harmony, and piano at the Cornish School, mostly as a private student, over a period of roughly eighteen months. There was no record of attendance at the University of Washington.

162
He had stated emphatically: Handwritten memo by Art Rupe, ca. April 1, 1956.

163
“creatures of the Creator [with no] barrier”: Art Rupe to Brother Joe May, April 30, 1951.

163
“you know that we are in your corner”: Art Rupe to Brother Joe May, April 12, 1950.

163
he was “an intense guy”: “Salient points from ANR’s [Arthur N. Rupe’s] Talk, from tape,” n.d., Specialty archives. Rupe spoke of Sam as an “enigma” and “puzzle” in a BBC interview, and in similar terms to me.

164
he pointed to a picture of Harry Belafonte: Wolff,
You Send Me,
p. 132. Paul Foster spoke more on this subject in his 1984 interview with Lee Hildebrand.

164
To Morgan Babb . . . he declared: BBC interview with Morgan Babb.

164
to others, like Oakland piano and organ player Faidest Wagoner: Lee Hildebrand interview with Faidest Wagoner.

164
a “personable debut”:
Billboard,
March 9, 1957. In this same issue, there is extensive discussion in Ren Grevatt’s column, “On the Beat,” of the “integration of the tastes of the majority into the minority,” in other words, the merging of the r&b and pop markets.

166
“If this [record] doesn’t make it”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

167
“Hi Bumbs”: The letter is undated but clearly was written in the week preceding May 3.

168
a song he had been trying to get L.C. to record for Vee Jay: Interview with L.C. Cooke; L.C. said that Vee Jay a&r head Ewart Abner had no use for the song.

168
“I hit the ceiling”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

168
Crain telegrammed Art: S.R. Crain to Art Rupe, May 3, 1957.

169
Things clearly must have come to a head: Both Charles and L.C. Cooke and Leroy Crume all spoke to me about Sam’s dissatisfaction with his songwriter’s royalties. Art Rupe’s February 16, 1956, letter to Crain alludes obliquely at least to the potential for misunderstanding. Daniel Wolff wrote about the group vote in
You Send Me,
p. 122, undoubtedly on the testimony of his coauthor Crain.

169
In the end, Sam got his way: Wolff wrote that Sam got his own songwriter’s contract, presumably in February 1956, but I could find no evidence of this in the Specialty archives. I think there’s little question, though, that an informal understanding at least was reached.

169
“I hated Bumps”: Dred Scott Keyes interview with S.R. Crain, 1996.

170
he was “thinking about going out for himself”: Lee Hildebrand interview with Paul Foster, 1984.

170
“He asked my opinion”: Terry Gross interview with S.R. Crain,
Fresh Air,
National Public Radio, March 23, 1995.

170
His father told him he owed no loyalty to the Soul Stirrers: Dred Scott Keyes interview with Reverend Charles Cook, 1995; Reverend Cook at the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, 1986.

170
He had come to a parting of the ways: In Sam’s initial filing for divorce, in November 1957, the date of separation is listed as May 24, 1957.

HOW HE CROSSED OVER

171
the escalating problems . . . with Little Richard: “He was very insincere in my opinion,” Rupe told the BBC. According to Rupe, Little Richard was converted to the Seventh Day Adventist faith by former Specialty artist Joe Lutcher, who convinced Richard that it was “evil to sing pop.” “As early as June 1957,” Rob Finnis wrote in the notes to
Little Richard: The Specialty Sessions
(Specialty 8508), p. 15, “Richard hinted to reporters that he was planning to become an evangelist.” But part of Art continued to wonder if it wasn’t some kind of business or negotiating ploy.

171
Art had gone over the ground: Rupe expressed this to me and went into it further in Billy Vera’s notes to
The Specialty Story
(Specialty 4412).

172
Sam had been staying: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

172
Clifton (“Clif”) White: I have spelled Clif’s first name in this way because he made the point very strongly to me that there was no second
f
in Clifton.

173
“The girls were nearly sitting out in the hall”: Bumps Blackwell interview, Specialty archives.

173
The first song they did, “You Send Me”: Clif White was very clear on the order of the songs in my interviews with him.

174
Sam signed a new contract . . . with a 1 percent royalty: A 1 percent royalty amounted to a penny a single on 90 percent of all records sold, which by standard record company practice allowed for a 10 percent dispensation of “free goods” to DJs and other interested parties. If a million singles were sold, in other words, income for the recording artist at that 1 percent rate would come to $9,000.

174
Sam also got a $400 advance: Royalty statement, June 30, 1957.

174
The songwriter’s agreement stipulated that he would split his one-penny-per-side mechanical royalty: Royalty statements, December 31, 1957, and June 30, 1958. The second is drawn up with instructions not to pay out any money until the conclusion of the lawsuit in which Rupe, Sam, Bumps, and Keen Records were by then embroiled. But it includes a calculation of Sam’s royalties at $.005 per side along with an alternate statement for L.C. Cooke at $.02 per side for L.C. and/or his publisher, should the court decide that he, and not Sam, had written the pop songs by Sam that Specialty had released. Little Richard had a similar deal, with Venice taking a 50 percent cut-in on his writer’s share (see Charles White,
The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock,
pp. 57-59).

175
The session was in full swing: The details of the session itself are based primarily on interviews with Art Rupe, Clif White, Harold Battiste, J.W. Alexander, Steve Propes’ 1987 interview with René Hall, and the Bumps Blackwell interview in the Specialty archives. The documents that detail the legal outcome of the case are in the Specialty archives.