Sam Cooke - Greatest Hits

Sam Cooke

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 24, 1998)
• Original Release Date: February 24, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000006389
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,373 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Now we have Greatest Hits, a 22-song collection of Cooke's pop hits in addition to the 13-song Best Of collection and the 28-song The Man and His Music. Only The Man comes close to presenting a complete portrait of the legendary soul singer: At least there are examples of Cooke's gospel and R&B material. (Any collection without "A Change is Gonna Come" is an automatic failure.) Cooke's melodious voice and deft songwriting touch are worthy of more than a single-disc compilation. If you want just the pop smashes, the sublime ballads, and infectious mellow grooves, this set will suffice. Otherwise, The Man offers a more comprehensive and well-rounded look at Cooke's legacy. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good News, Bad News, July 13, 2000

By	Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

With 1986's The Man And His Music out of print, the release of Greatest Hits is a case of good news, bad news.

Good News: It updates and expands on the CD version of 1962's The Best Of by adding eight more tracks. You get early minor hits like "You Were Made for Me" and "Love You Most of All" (both from 1958). You also get later hits like "Send Me Some Lovin'," "Frankie and Johnny" (yes, it's on the CD, even though it's not listed by Amazon) and "The Little Red Rooster" all Top 20 hits from 1963. You even get his final Top 40 hit, "Sugar Dumpling," which was released posthumously in 1965.

Bad News: Unlike The Man And His Music, Greatest Hits completely ignores Cooke's gospel music and even more dumbfounding is the omission of "Another Saturday Night," "Shake" (his last two Top Ten hits) and the socially conscious "A Change Is Gonna Come." [Who was asleep at the switch when that decision was made?] Fortunately, I still have my cassette version of The Man And His Music, but until that title gets re-released, Greatest Hits is the current best alternative. RECOMMENDED

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost all of his classics, March 23, 2000

By	Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

You can never really go wrong with a Sam Cooke album. This is no exception.The CD contains a good number of his 'hits'. Cooke works for just about any mood I happpen to be in. I often get in my car, pop in this CD, click on "Bring It On Home To Me" and just keep playing that song over and over. For you trivia buffs out there - that's Lou Rawls doing the harmony with Cooke on this track. You Send Me, Wonderful World, Twistin the NIght Away - work well for those upbeat moments. All in all - a CD worth buying.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Super soul, November 23, 2001

By	Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (North Plainfield, NJ) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Cooke, often acknowledged as the definitive soul singer, gets some of his catalog back on CD with this generous single-disc collection. This piece is packed with his Keen and RCA hits up to 1964 but having had 31 charted pop singles up to that point, by necessity some of the lower-charting sides are not here. The major disappointment though, is the lack of any of Cooke's material after 1963. Unfortunately, his catalog for that post-1963 material is in the hands of ABKCO music which stubbornly refuses to license anything to anyone else and at the same time has often neglected to issue the material themselves - the Cameo/Parkway catalog is probably the most infamous example of this idiocy. Nevertheless, for as far as it can go, this is an excellent compilation of this magnificent soul singer's recordings. The mastering has been vastly improved over past attempts at this material with many of the tracks in true stereo, the remainder (1-3,5,8) in mono. By far, the best single-disc presentation of this soul icon's musical career.