Sam Cooke: Mr. Soul [SECOND RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

Second Records presses Cooke's ninth studio album on 180g vinyl in Europe. It finds him at his silkiest, backed by strings on songs like "I Wish You Love" and "Smoke Rings."

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

By 1963 the title was simply a statement of fact. Sam Cooke had the hits and the gospel pedigree, and on Mr. Soul, produced by Hugo & Luigi for RCA Victor, he showed off another side of himself: the supper-club crooner, gliding through standards with a full orchestra at his back. It was a natural fit for a singer who had always made the difficult sound effortless, and Hugo & Luigi gave him the plush settings to prove it.

Horace Ott arranges and conducts, with some of Hollywood's finest in the room: Earl Palmer on drums, Plas Johnson on saxophone, Tommy Tedesco and Bill Pitman on guitar and a lush string section. Cooke takes "All the Way" and "For Sentimental Reasons" at an unhurried stroll, digs into "Driftin' Blues" and "Chains of Love," and René Hall conducts his own "Nothing Can Change This Love." "Little Girl" is pure tenderness, and the whole thing moves at the pace of a long, contented evening.

It spent nine weeks on Billboard's album chart in 1963. Put on "Send Me Some Lovin'" after dark and the lights seem to dim on their own; we've had the wiring checked, and it isn't us.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Second Records (cat# SRPD0035), a reissue of the 1963 album.