Sam Cooke, Portrait of a Legend

One of the famous quotes in Rock and Roll is when Jon Landau heard Bruce Springsteen for the first time and said " I have heard the future of rock and roll and it's name is Bruce Springsteen.

This proved to be true. There is no bigger fan of Bruce Springsteen than me. I have seen him several times and own all of the music he has released. Every concert tour I will attempt to be there.

That said over the last few years I have developed a huge appreciation for the soul singers and Motown of the sixties. Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding are amazing. There music reaches me in ways nothing today can do.

My wife's sister has wide ranging and eclectic music tastes and she told me I needed to listen to Sam Cooke. I was not unfamiliar, having heard his music in Animal House approximately 1000 times.

This collection may be as close to perfection as you will ever hear. It is without a doubt the most uplifting collection of music in my 13000+ song collection in my itunes library.

From the gospel of Jesus Gave Me Water to Touch the Hem of his Garment to songs we all know from A Chang is Gonna Come, Having a Party, Twistin the Night Away. What a Wonderful World, Cupid and on and on it goes.

You could list every song on this album.

I read just recently that a survey of musicologists named Sam Cooke as the consensus favorite as the greatest singer of the 20th century. Of course that is a subjective vote, there are so many great singers across so many great genres. That said Sam Cooke gets my vote too.

This man's voice was as near perfection as you will ever hear.