Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke (118 page)

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a four-star review:
Billboard,
November 2, 1959.

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Alan Freed even played “Stand By Me Father”: “On November 27, 1959, Alan Freed vanished from New York’s airwaves,” John Jackson wrote in
Big Beat Heat: Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock & Roll,
p. 260. Like nearly everything J.W. told me in our initial interviews over twenty years ago, when I had no real idea of what he was talking about, this checked out almost perfectly to the day.

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his first dramatic role: Davis appeared in “Auf Wiedersehen,” on the
General Electric Theater,
in 1958, according to Donald Bogle,
Prime Time Blues: African Americans on Network Television.
He subsequently appeared in “Mission,” a drama about the Buffalo Soldiers, which aired on Dick Powell’s
Zane Grey Theater
at just about this time, according to Bogle.

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so he could rehearse with Sammy: All of the details in this account are from my interviews with Jess Rand. The
Atlanta Daily World,
November 8, 1959, reported that Sammy was rehearsing for his new dramatic role while playing the Sands. He headlined at the Sands from November 4 to 24.

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the harsh realities of show-business segregation: See “Las Vegas—The Swingingest City,”
Sepia,
December 1960, and Wil Haygood,
In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.,
p. 303. Las Vegas was finally desegregated in March 1960 in the aftermath of the filming of the first
Ocean’s 11
(starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.) at the Sands. The Sinatra-led Rat Pack undoubtedly played a role, with the Sands, partially owned by Sinatra, the first casino to end its segregated practices in the face of a publicity campaign led by Dr. James B. McMillan, the city’s only black dentist, and Hank Greenspun, publisher of the
Las Vegas Sun.
The other casinos continued to hold out until March 25, the day before the first threatened demonstration. It was at this point that desegregation was generally declared under an agreement signed at the Moulin Rouge and subsequently referred to as the Moulin Rouge Agreement.

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Hugo and Luigi . . . had been hired by RCA: “Victor A.&R. Policy Beams ‘Open Door,’”
Billboard,
March 2, 1959.

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he had been treated with racial condescension: Clyde Otis, Clyde McPhatter’s friend and producer, and one of the only black record executives at the time, said of Clyde’s views: “It was his militancy that made him have problems with Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. Their perception of him was different than the way he wanted to be perceived” (Colin Escott,
Clyde McPhatter: A Biographical Essay,
p. 33). When I asked Ahmet Ertegun about this, he ascribed Clyde’s views to eccentricity and “paranoia.”

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“for quick commercial consumption”:
Cash Box,
October 10, 1959.

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Siamas agreed to pay Sam a lump sum: Court documents,
B. Wolf v. Rex Productions, Inc.,
as above.

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he had decided to do without . . . William Morris: Sam’s resentment of William Morris was vividly recalled by Jess Rand and Sam’s brothers. Dick Alen, the Universal Attractions agent to whom much of the William Morris booking was farmed out, recognized that sometimes “Sam and Crain would just book themselves. We cared and didn’t care. You look the other way.”

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he would be touring with L.C.:
Jet,
November 5, 1959.

310
Sam gladly lent his name:
Atlanta Daily World,
December 6, 1959.

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the crowd went wild: Paul Foster referred to this in his interview with Lee Hildebrand as “a cheerful welcome.” Crume spoke extensively of Sam’s continued popularity with the gospel crowd and of the many times he appeared with the group both to help them out and for his own satisfaction. In fact, it became such a commonplace occurrence that the group felt let down when Sam refused to join them onstage at the Met in Philadelphia not long after the Atlanta program—but Sam said he would just watch from the wings, it was time for them to do it on their own.

310
a Frank Interlandi work called
Suffragettes
: Sam continued his art collecting and extended his collection of Interlandis. His sister Mary referred to his having acquired a third “Indrisano” painting in an ANP item that ran in various weeklies toward the end of October 1960. You can see Sam’s wall of paintings in pictures of both the Leimert Park apartment and the house in Los Feliz that he and Barbara later moved into. He remained an enthusiastic art collector, Barbara said, visiting the Beverly Hills art galleries frequently whenever he was at home.

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Mary . . . came out at Sam’s expense:
The Carolinian,
September 26, 1959, January 2, 1960.

313
he sent out a card: Jess Rand kindly made a copy of the card for me.

HAVING FUN IN THE RECORD BUSINESS

315
The two cousins sat facing each other: I should say that virtually my entire account of Hugo and Luigi’s colorful, and long-lived, partnership is based on my interviews with Luigi Creatore alone, due to Hugo Peretti’s death in 1986. The only interview with Peretti of which I’m aware appears in Gerri Hirshey’s 1984
Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music,
and, in the broadest terms, certainly, it can be said to echo Luigi’s account—but I wish I were able to supply something of Hugo’s independent voice. Session tapes bear out his integral role in the New York sessions and his absence from the Los Angeles one.

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“The Great Creatore”: Professor Harold Hill, the rascally hero of the musical comedy
The Music Man,
recalls that memorable day when “the Great Creatore, W. C. Handy, and John Philip Sousa all came to town,” in his signature number, “76 Trombones.”

319
“Chain Gang” stemmed from a very specific scene that Sam and Charles had witnessed: The November 10, 1960,
Jet
refers to Sam having “collaborated with his brother Charles” to write the song. As to its hybrid style, in “Recipe for Success,” an article under his own name in the 1962
Radio Luxembourg Book of Radio Stars,
Sam writes that “Chain Gang” was “a typical example of my retention of the spiritual style of singing.”

322
Kylo showed up in a state of such insobriety: J.W. spoke to me often about Kylo Turner, both his talent and his insufficiencies, and I listened to one of the instrumental tracks, “Wildest Girl in Town,” on which Kylo did overdub a vocal. Daniel Wolff, too, describes how “impressed” Johnnie was with the string section in Daniel Wolff with S. R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum,
You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke,
p. 225.

322
Sam ran into Johnnie Morisette: Nearly all the biographical material, and all of the quotes, are from Tim Schuller, “The Johnnie ‘Two-Voice’ Story: Johnnie Morisette,”
Living Blues
49, winter 1980-81. See also Opal Louis Nations, “Superman: The Johnnie Morisette Story,”
Rock & Blues News,
October-November 2000.

323
“Under the Personal Supervision of Sam Cooke”: I have taken a bit of poetic license here. This credit is on Kylo Turner SAR 102, but Johnnie’s single, when it came out two release numbers later, simply said “Produced by Sam Cooke and J.W. Alexander.” I’m not sure what the credit for the Soul Stirrers record in between was, because I’ve never seen it.

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a full-page ad in
Billboard: Billboard,
February 15, 1960.

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another lawsuit against the Siamases:
B. Wolf v. Rex Productions, Inc.,
No. 741782, California Superior Court, March 16, 1960.

327
a “hot dispute with [the] dance managers”: Paul C. McGee, “Auto Crash Kills Rock-Roll Ace,”
Los Angeles Sentinel,
February 18, 1960. See also “The Strange Flaming Death of Jesse Belvin,”
Sepia,
June 1960.

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“Did Racism Kill Jesse?”:
Norfolk Journal and Guide,
March 5, 1960.

327
“They try to knock us down”:
The Carolinian,
April 2, 1960, et al. (ANP syndication).

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nineteen-year-old drummer Leo Morris: Morris is today the noted jazz musician Idris Muhammad.

332
“Being on a major boulevard . . . made this a good address”: Walter E. Hurst and William Storm Hale,
The Music Industry Book,
p. 3142.

332
unless he was on the road: The
California Eagle,
July 7, 1960, for example, made a point of informing its readers that J.W. Alexander was just back “from the east.”

332
going pop just after her eighteenth birthday:
Norfolk Journal and Guide,
February 27, 1960. J.W. spoke a great deal about Aretha and Sam. So did Sam’s brothers L.C. and Charles. Aretha herself appeared to be under the misconception that Sam was trying to get her to sign with RCA—or perhaps this is just a distortion of memory fostered by Columbia executive John Hammond’s belief at the time. “I had been told . . . that Sam Cooke was determined to sign Aretha to RCA Victor,” Hammond wrote in his autobiography with Irving Townsend,
John Hammond on Record,
p. 348. The result, he said, was that he “signed her quick.” But there is no question that when Sam and J.W. thought about signing Aretha, it was to their own label, SAR.

332
“Crain lived in Chicago”: Hurst,
The Music Industry Book,
pp. 3116-3117.

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“a spoiled little brat”: Etta James and David Ritz,
Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story,
p. 64.

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“like a little kid playing grown-up”: Hirshey,
Nowhere to Run,
p. 102.

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the “chain of devilment”: “Little Willie John Grows Up,”
Tan,
February 1961.

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Little Willie John was a gambling fool: In addition to his sister’s more circumspect testimony,
everyone
spoke of Little Willie John’s gambling proclivities, from Charles and L.C. to Billy Davis, Solomon Burke, and Etta James, who wrote in her memoir,
Rage to Survive,
about Willie terrorizing the tour manager, Nat Margo.

335
the airport reception that greeted them:
Jet,
August 11, 1960, as well as Idris Muhammad interview.

335
“I burn with ambition”: “Boy Singer Makes Good,”
New York Journal-American,
August 5, 1960.

337
the violence “that gave Negro concerts black eyes”: Elgin Hychew, “Dig Me! . . . ,”
Louisiana Weekly,
August 13, 1960.

337
a direct ban on all rock ’n’ roll revues: Marcel Hopson, “2 Wounded in Wild Shooting Spree at City Auditorium,”
Birmingham World,
July 20, 1960.

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“The commotion started”: “Jazz Concert Ends on Near-Riot Kick,”
Louisiana Weekly,
July 23, 1960.

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these “young people . . . who are willing to risk verbal abuse”: “Clyde Hails Young Freedom-Seekers,”
Norfolk Journal and Guide,
July 9, 1960.

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“plans had been made to run a rope”:
Norfolk Journal and Guide,
August 27, 1960.

338
“The SAM COOKE crowd . . . did not fully dig”: Elgin Hychew, “Dig Me! . . . ,”
Louisiana Weekly,
August 13, 1960.

340
Johnnie Taylor got into an automobile accident: Paul Foster told a somewhat different story to Lee Hildebrand, which involved Johnnie getting busted for smoking dope at the Evans Hotel as well as the automobile accident.

340
he preached his first sermon at Fellowship Baptist: Lee Hildebrand liner notes to the three-CD set
Johnnie Taylor: Lifetime
(Stax 4432); Paul Foster, in his 1984 interview with Hildebrand, recalled Taylor’s first sermon, in Shreveport, while he was still on the road with the Stirrers. “He worshiped his Book,” Foster said.

340
“The Reverend Johnnie Taylor (Formerly with the Soul Stirrers)”:
Atlanta Daily World,
September 4, 1960.

340
Paul Foster took over the lead: Foster spoke of this in his 1981 interview with Ray Funk. According to him, someone named “Felt” replaced Johnnie Taylor for a minute. This may well be the same person that Crume referred to as the “little Holiness guy.”

340
Sam had an audition set up: Joe Ligon, like June Cheeks, is a little hard to figure for the Soul Stirrers sound. He was, and remains, a
hard
singer. In any case, his group, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, had its first Peacock Records session within a month and achieved stardom within a couple of years, becoming one of the biggest and most emotionally riveting quartets from the sixties to the present day.

341
“Well, we was at the Shrine”: J.W. remembered it as the Olympic.

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at once “relaxed and hectic”: “Sam Still Cookin’ on New RCA Victor Album,”
Michigan Chronicle,
April 1, 1961.