Sam Cooke "Portrait Of A Legend" 1951-1964

Some 46 years after his first pop hit, and 39 years after his death, comes only the second attempt at a comprehensive Sam Cooke collection…

...Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 eclipses RCA's early-'80s The Man and His Music, going it better in running time but losing some important recordings -- "That's Heaven to Me" and "Soothe Me," arguably one of Cooke's most important songs -- in the process of summing up his career. From 1951's Soul Stirrers' gospel classic "Touch the Hem of His Garment" through to 1964's "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Shake," we get highlights of Cooke's career presented in state-of-the-art digital audio; superior in every way possible to the audio quality of The Man and His Music. What's more, this is a hybrid disc with SACD capability, and the sound on that layer is almost as much of a jump above the quality on the CD layer as this remastering is from the old The Man and His Music disc; and either the standard CD or the SACD playback makes that 1980s-issued compilation sound faint and anemic. There's also annotation here -- which was totally lacking on the earlier CD -- by Peter Guralnick, which delves very effectively into the background of each song. And the producers have taken the trouble to be a little inventive in the programming -- it would have been easy enough to follow a strict chronological approach, but instead the disc opens and closes with tracks that reveal Cooke's gospel roots, which is pretty much where his music started and where it ended up, bookending his first hit with songs from his first session ever.(Bruce Eder, Allmusic)

trax:
01 Touch The Hem Of His Garment 02 Lovable 03 You Send Me 04 Only Sixteen 05 (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons 06 Just For You 07 Win Your Love For Me 08 Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha 09 I'll Come Running Back To You 10 You Were Made For Me 11 Sad Mood 12 Cupid 13 (What A) Wonderful World 14 Chain Gang 15 Summertime 16 Little Red Rooster 17 Bring It On Home To Me 18 Nothing Can Change This Love 19 Sugar Dumpling 20 (Ain't That) Good News 21 Meet Me At Mary's Place 22 Twistin' The Night Away 23 Shake 24 Tennessee Waltz 25 Another Saturday Night 26 Good Times 27 Having A Party 28 That's Where It's At 29 A Change Is Gonna Come 30 Jesus Gave Me Water 31 8 Bars Of Soul
…served by Gyro1966...