Gloomy Tunes: Sam Cooke, "End Of My Journey"

As Merle Ginsberg reminded us, today’s the anniversary of Sam Cooke’s somewhat unseemly murder. So we here a Gloomy Tunes figured it was as good a time as any hear his sing. But not the secular songs that made him an international pop star, we’re going to remember his from the start of his career, when he was the lead tenor of the Soul Stirrers gospel group, singing “End of My Journey.”

Cooke’s attempt to cross-over so worried this label, Specialty Records, his first secular song, “Loveable” (a rewrite of the gospel hit “Wonderful”) was released under the barely there pseudonym of Dale Cook. Not that anybody was fooled.

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.