Cooke made many appearances on television singing "You Send Me," but he often used the national platform to present more adult-oriented material that bore little relation to the gospel-fired soul revivals he led at nightclubs (see his epic record, "Live at the Harlem Square Club"). Antonelli included a pair of short pieces of filmed testimony from the coroner's inquest that are among the film's most enduring images.Īntonelli is hampered by a lack of outstanding footage. Cooke led rhythm and blues to the threshold of soul, developing as an artist, songwriter and record producer from the innocent early works of "Wonderful World" or "Only Sixteen" (done in collaboration with young Herb Alpert and Lou Adler, both featured in the Antonelli film) to the mature, powerful voice of "A Change Is Gonna Come."Ĭooke's career was cut short in December 1964 when he was shot to death in an incident at a South Central Los Angeles motel never satisfactorily explained. His first pop sessions were held in secret for fear that word leaking out could hurt his standing in the gospel field. Heartthrob to vital artistĪntonelli follows handsome, talented Cooke from his beginnings as a heartthrob in the gospel world with, first, the Highway QC's and, eventually, as a star of the country's leading gospel quartet, the Soul Stirrers. No less an authority than Jerry Wexler, producer of Ray Charles and Franklin, always called Cooke the greatest vocalist of his generation. 1 hit, "You Send Me," Cooke stayed on the charts throughout the remainder of his too-short, brilliant seven-year career. Best known for his sweetly warbled 1957 No. Cooke was his era's most charismatic vocalist. Consequently, there will be no home video version of "Sam Cooke: Crossing Over." If you're interested, make a point of catching it Monday or on any of the encore broadcasts - it's well worth seeing. Klein could have stopped any film with his control of Cooke's music publishing except for a statutory exemption for public television that grants compulsory licenses to educational broadcasts. Sam cooke documentary tv#Also among the unwilling was Cooke biographer Peter Guralnick, who wrote a Klein-sanctioned 2003 VH-1 cable TV documentary on Cooke. All through the doggedly determined production, Antonelli found subjects unwilling to talk because of pressure from Klein. "I knew she grew up in Chicago," Antonelli said, "but I had no idea she had any connection with the Cookes." Many subjects wouldn't talkĮven then, although Cooke's sister, Agnes, since deceased, and brother Charles did sit for interviews, his other brother, L.C., declined. Sam cooke documentary full#He was at the wedding of fellow filmmaker Chann Berry, who ended up producer on the Cooke film, when the bride in full regalia told him that Cooke's family, friends of hers since elementary school, had agreed to an interview. "Allen changed his mind," said Antonelli, sitting in the captain's cabin of his Sausalito houseboat office, world headquarters of his Mill Valley Film Group.Īntonelli said he hit the low point sometime shortly after that when he and a film crew spent an afternoon in a Detroit restaurant waiting for Aretha Franklin, who never showed. At first, Antonelli approached Klein, after reading the 1995 Daniel Wolff biography, "You Send Me," and the veteran documentarian headed out to shoot some sample interviews with Klein's blessing.
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