Sam Cooke: Ain't That Good News [ABKCO]

Why you'll love it

ABKCO's reissue is newly remastered on 180g vinyl in stereo with the original artwork restored. It was Cooke's final studio album, reached No. 34 on the Billboard pop chart and put five songs out as singles.

This edition

• Remastered
• 180g vinyl
• Restored original artwork
• Stereo

About the album

Sam Cooke cut most of this album at RCA's Music Center of the World studio between February 1963 and January 1964, the first songs he recorded after the death of his young son Vincent. You'd hardly guess it from Side A, which is as warm and good-humoured as soul music gets; the grief, and the grace, are saved for Side B.

The first side swings: the title track, "Meet Me at Mary's Place," "Good Times" and the irresistible "Another Saturday Night," plus a lively "Tennessee Waltz." Then come the ballads, led by "A Change Is Gonna Come," with its sweeping strings and that astonishing vocal, before "Falling in Love," "Home (When Shadows Fall)" and "The Riddle Song" close things gently. Like Ray Charles's Modern Sounds records, it splits the hard soul and the tender stuff into two halves.

"A Change Is Gonna Come" was a modest hit at first and grew into one of the defining songs of the Civil Rights era. Side A is for Saturday night, Side B for Sunday morning, and we won't judge which one you play more.

Also at Kops: more Sam Cooke on vinyl · browse Classic Soul

Tracklist

Listen

On RCA Victor / ABKCO (cat# 8628-1), a reissue of the 1964 album.