Samcooke Stories

I thought I'd give a go on some imagines with some of my favorite people and hopefully yours. I hope you enjoy!

Each chapter is a different song, each song is a different story.

Sam Cooke was the most important soul singer in history, along with being the inventor of soul music, African American singer Sam Cooke was the most popular and beloved performer in both the black and white communities during his times. He reinvented himself as a romantic crooner in the manner of Nat King Cole. His strength was in his smoothness. He wrote many of his best songs himself, including his first hit, the ethereal "You Send Me," which shot to number one on all charts in 1957 and established Cooke as a superstar. One of the most important songs that Sam Cooke ever wrote was "A Change Is Gonna Come." In 1963, as he was writing his RCA album Ain't That Good News, Cooke was in a transition moment. Sadly he was not able to be here, and see how popular his music has become and how big A Change Is Gonna Come has become.

It is one of the most famous moments in sports history: the February 1964 match when a braggadocious 22-year-old named Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston in Miami Beach to win the world heavyweight boxing championship. Yet what happened in the hours that followed is little known: Clay - soon to be known as Muhammad Ali - celebrated his triumph in a room at the Hampton House, a motel in Miami's Black Brownsville neighborhood that was frequented by Black celebrities. Accompanying Clay to the two-story lodge were three friends who had been in the smoky, crowded Convention Hall when Liston surrendered: Nation of Islam minister Malcolm X, crossover soul singer Sam Cooke and Cleveland Browns running back and future Hall of Famer Jim Brown, then all in the prime of youth.