Quotes About Sam Cooke

#1. When I hear Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come', it frustrates me because no matter how hard I try, I can never be that good.

Julian Casablancas

#2. I love the pioneers like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but when I write music, it comes out in my own way.

Leon Bridges

#3. I grew up in a household in which they'd always play old skool classic R&B love songs - Al Green, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye ... And my mom has even said that, when I was in her womb, she'd put the headphones to her stomach and play those songs to me!

Jeremih

#4. My father was very interested in music, and when he and his brothers were young, they had a singing group that used to open for Sam Cooke. There was always music in our house, but there wasn't much art around.

Carrie Mae Weems

#5. In my vocal, I think you can hear something of my earlier times when I'd sing in subway halls for the echo and perform doo-wop on street corners. But I had a lot of influences, too - singers like Sam Cooke, Brook Benton and Roy Hamilton.

Ben E. King

#6. I had been on tour with people like Roy Orbison. I knew Bobby Darin, Sam Cooke. So many great performers.

Bobby Vinton

#7. My dad sung and played piano. But he was also a man of God. He was a minister. So when Sam Cooke would come in town, you know, with The Soul Stirrers at that time, he was singing gospel, they would end up at my dad's church, and it would always be a guest singer for Sunday morning.

Merry Clayton

#8. I like listening to old soul music. I like Sam Cooke. When I was growing up, the first things I was listening to was Whitney Houston and Cher. They were really big inspirations for me.

Rebecca Ferguson

#9. I gave a Christmas party last year - well, two Christmases ago - where I did a Sam Cooke show. I didn't perform as R. Kelly. I performed the Sam Cooke show from 1964, when he performed at the Copacabana.

R. Kelly

#10. If you took a little of Sam Cooke and a little of Little Richard, and poured it in a jar and shook it up and poured it out you would get Otis Redding.

Steve Cropper

#11. Oh boy, I grew up hearing Sam Cooke, The Soul Stirrers, Mahalia Jackson, sitting on Mahalia Jackson's lap in my dad's church.

Merry Clayton

#12. I started with Sam Cooke when I was 6 or 7 years old.

Bobby Womack

#13. Popular music has always been rooted in the blues, whether it's Adele or Led Zeppelin or Sam Cooke. It's just the beat that changes.

L.A. Reid

#14. I'm not James Brown. I'm not Sam Cooke. I'm Charley Pride. I'm just me and that's what you got.

Charley Pride

#15. The first time I heard Sam Cooke was in the 'Malcom X' film. I was with my father, and that's the first time I heard his song. I remember my father telling me the story of Sam Cooke.

Leon Bridges

#16. I want people to see an honesty within me. I'm not trying to be the next Sam Cooke or Otis Redding.

Leon Bridges

#17. People like Clyde McPhatter who came out of the black churches - like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin - were all church singers who became great pop singers because gospel singing is very close to the blues.

Ahmet Ertegun

#18. I'm an old soul. I like the Nat King Cole; Sam Cooke is my favorite singer of all time. But I'm into neo-soul; I'm into R&B. Some of the modern stuff appeals to me, but most of it comes from an older time.

Trai Byers

#19. I'm coming from a Ginuwine and Usher background: slow and smooth songs. And that's why I really connected to Sam Cooke, because he was just very smooth. It's not like the James Brown types, which is all great stuff, but he was totally set apart from those guys.

Leon Bridges

#20. When I first played New York, it was with James Brown at the Apollo, and I was playing in a band under the name The Valentinos. I remember Sam Cooke saying, 'I want you to go in there with James Brown. I couldn't be as hard on you as James Brown would be.' But we came out marching like soldiers.

Bobby Womack

#21. I know a lot of people who are not here anymore, and I wonder why I'm still here ... Not a day goes by that I don't think about Sam Cooke. His presence is so strong and so convincing to me, a true artist, a true talent, who never talked down to people.

Bobby Womack

#22. I drew a lot of inspiration from the Ginuwines, the Ushers, the Michael Jacksons, the James Browns, Sam Cooke.

Chris Brown

#23. Estee Lauder cologne. Sam Cooke always wore it, and I started wearing it because he wore it.

Bobby Womack

#24. I'd been listening to African-American music since the first record I ever bought, which was by Sam Cooke. And it sounds more like my private thoughts that I never thought I would be able to articulate - I never thought I would be able to express publicly.

David Toop

#25. I always loved Sam Cooke, because he seemed very versatile. He sang gospel, soul, blues, pop music.

Aaron Neville

#26. The quality of our lives is diminished every time we lose a great artist. It's a different world without Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Curtis Mayfield, Brian Jones and the rest.

Steven Van Zandt

#27. Dear Mama, don't cry, your baby boy's doin' good,
Tell the homies I'm in heaven, and they ain't got hoods.
Seen a show with Marvin Gaye last night, it had me shook,
Drippin' peppermint Schnapps, with Jackie Wilson, and Sam Cooke ...

Tupac Shakur

#28. I think the secret is really observation. Well, if you observe what's going on and try to figure out how people are thinking, I think you can always write something that people will understand.

Sam Cooke

#29. Well that's very kind of you, but voices ought not be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth.

Sam Cooke

#30. It's been a long time coming. But I know a change is gonna come

Sam Cooke

#31. Shakin' like a bowl of soup and make your body loop-de-loop.

Sam Cooke

#32. There been times when I thought I couldn't last for long But now I think I'm able to carry on It's been a long, been a long time coming But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will

Sam Cooke

#33. I'm gonna sing, and I'm going to make me a lot of money.

Sam Cooke

#34. You know, I'll always be your slave 'til I'm buried, buried in my grave.

Sam Cooke

#35. I was born by the river, in a little tent, and just like the river I've been running ever since.

Sam Cooke

#36. Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody ... ..

Sam Cooke

#37. Ooh, ah, ooh, ah, that's the sound of the men working on the chain gang.

Sam Cooke

#38. It was something I enjoyed doing and decided to give it a couple years, though I'm not making a lot of money now either!

Sam Cooke

#39. Another fella told me, he had a sister who looked just fine. Instead of being my deliverance, she had a strange resemblance to a cat name of Frankenstein.

Sam Cooke

#40. Man, if I was back home, I'd be swinging with two chicks on my arms.

Sam Cooke

#41. Don't know much about history, don't know much biology, don't know much about a science book, don't know much about the French I took.

Sam Cooke

#42. If I could just touch the hem of His garment
I know I'll be made whole

Sam Cooke

#43. It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die. 'Cause I don't know what's up there, beyond the sky.

Sam Cooke