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Posted on 05/09/2025 12:39:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Another of his timeless hits entered the Hot 100 in May 1960. Sam Cooke made so many outstanding contributions to music history that it’s impossible to choose just one song that defines him. His smooth, lyrical and expressive voice adorned countless gems, from “You Send Me” to “Chain Gang,” “Only Sixteen” to “Cupid,” and of course the immortal “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Another of his all-time greats, “Wonderful World,” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 9, 1960.
The song was written chiefly by A&M Records co-founder and hitmaker Herb Alpert with Lou Adler, but Cooke himself is credited for his work on the lyrics of what may be the only hit song to mention trigonometry. The trio went by the collective writing pseudonym of Barbara Campbell, the name of a high school sweetheart of Cooke’s. The song was released in mid-April of 1960 and took its tentative first step on the US pop chart at No.97.
It went on to spend two weeks at No.12 in late June and early July, a significant improvement on all of Cooke’s recent singles at that point. His previous eight chart entries had all peaked underneath the Top 20. His last appearance in the higher ground had been with “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” No.17 in early 1958.
Listen to The Greatest Soul 45s playlist, which features Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” along with soulful gems by James Carr, Aaron Neville, Isaac Hayes and more.
“Wonderful World” reached No.27 in the UK, where its finest hour would arrive all of 26 years later. Featured in a Levi’s jeans TV commercial campaign in 1986, it climbed all the way to No.2. Back in the US, the country’s mid-1960s obsession with Herman’s Hermits saw the British invasion group hit No.5 with their 1965 rendition of the much-covered tune. It was recorded in tribute to Cooke, who tragically had died the year before. Art Garfunkel took the song back into the Top 20 there in 1978, with a version featuring James Taylor and Paul Simon.
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Nobody makes good popular music anymore.
I recently purchased “Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964” - an anthology of Sam Cooke’s music on vinyl. Amazingly talented man - who knows how much more great music he’d have created if his life hadn’t been cut short.
Sam Cooke never used autotune.
Him and Marvin Gaye. So tragic to lose them so young.
I agree, mostly. You really have to dig deep but there is good pop music out there. Benson Boone, Beautiful Thing, and Aimee Carter, One Day You Will Fly Too, and 2nd Day in College.
It’s not pop music for 80-year-olds, like me, but teenagers, like my granddaughter. I do like these songs though.
Thanks; I’ll look into those.
He pretty much summarizes my mastery of my high school subjects.
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