Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke was an American singer-songwriter from Clarksdale, Mississippi, who began his career in gospel music in the 1940s before rising to prominence in soul and rhythm and blues in the 1950s and 1960s. His smooth tenor and incorporation of gospel phrasing into secular songcraft, along with recordings that addressed love and aspects of racial and social change, helped shape the sound and cultural role of modern soul music.