Podcasts about while sam

Miss Marple is one of the classic heroines of crime fiction. Quick-witted, devilishly observant and with a keen sense of justice, Jane Marple has delighted readers since she first appeared in a series of short stories by Agatha Christie in 1927. But now, almost a century later, she is being given a new lease of life in a collection of short stories penned by twelve of today's most famous crime writers, due out next year. Queen of crime fiction Val McDermid joins Emma to talk about writing one of the stories, and why she believes an elderly spinster makes for the perfect super-sleuth. A Question of Sport is the world's longest TV sports quiz - it first appeared on our TV screens way back in 1970 and has clocked up 1,295 episodes - but it took until Friday night for Sam Quek to make history as the first ever female team captain. The 2016 Olympic Gold winning hockey player features in the new revamped BBC series alongside other team captain former rugby player Ugo Monye. While Sam joins the programme, the long running host and former tennis player Sue Barker has been replaced by the comedian and TV presenter Paddy McGuiness. Sam Quek joins Emma. The Japanese Prime Minister has announced he is standing down. His popularity was at an all time low, and because of Covid many in Japan are very unhappy that the Olympics and Paralympics were held there. The Prime Minister took over from Shinzo Abe, who introduced a policy called Womeneconomics. This was a five year plan which ended last year, and aimed to get more women into the workforce and up the career ladder. Abe vowed to make women 'shine', and set a goal for them to hold 30% percent of leadership positions by 2020. So why did this deadline quietly pass without getting close to its target? Emma speaks to Kathy Matsui, who coined the term 'Womenomics' in 1999 and to Cynthia Usui - author of the Japanese book Eight Things Full-Time Housewives Should do Before Entering the Workforce. Image: Joan Hickson as Miss Marple in the 1984 BBC TV adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel The Body in the Library.

Bare Books presents Ending Samara by J W Voyce and read by Daizi Rae. Find out more about J W Voyce here >> http://jwvoyce.com/ Part Two - Chapter 3: After a Cycle is Broken 'Still in Florida (and still unmoved by her serendipitous and interlacing universe), Sam returned to Memorial Hospital and another person's bedside. Although this time it was not only the patient she was visiting. “Tiwari,” Cee greeted her in the corridor. “Seedy!” On first learning Sam's surname, and mentioning how beautiful she'd thought it was, her friend had insisted on only referring to her as Tiwari. While Sam, like many, had been amused by Cecilia's marital name. You know, of all the words I could use to describe you, she'd once quipped, I wouldn't have picked Seedy.' Come share your opinion about the podcast, the author and his book on Instagram and facebook @barebookspodcast and Twitter @barebookspod1 Submit your indie published book for a possible future review to submissions@barebooks.co.uk General enquiries to contactus@barebooks.co.uk Big thanks to Sydney Strong for the musical interludes. Find them on Instagram @dadnap.mp3

While Sam & Corinne are in Hawaii (on official business) Rande Vick shared with us this morning. Rande began with the question "What do you see in yourself?" And shared what Jesus sees in you. This is the audio podcast.

There's a new political party in Texas looking to shake things up.  But instead of running towards the edges, the Serve America Movement (SAM) has its roots planted firmly in the middle.  While SAM already has parties established in four states, Texas could be the linchpin of its overall success.  The rest of the country will be closely watching to see if SAM has a fighting chance in a deep red state.  But how can it succeed where so many other new parties have failed?  What is it offering that would allow it to crash the nation's longstanding two-party juggernaut?  In this episode of Y'all-itics, the Jasons talk to SAM's founding chairman in Texas Bill King who tells them the party and its supporters are convinced there's a big chunk of Texans who just “want somebody to do the damn job.”   Serve America Movement:  https://joinsam.org

Sam Mallikarjunan is the co-author of the book, Inbound Commerce: How to Sell Better Than Amazon, which is ironically the number one bestseller in its category on Amazon. Sam is the CEO and founder of OneScreen.ai, an Internet of Things (IOT) enabled ad marketplace for the physical world. He is also the former Chief Revenue Officer of Flock.com and the former head of growth at HubSpot Labs. Sam taught advanced digital marketing innovation management and strategic economics at Harvard University. He is also the faculty chair for the digital marketing department at the University of South Florida.    In today's episode, we're going to discuss Sam's journey, how we can market ourselves, and how to get a job with our dream company. Sam shares his story of how he got a  recruiter from his dream company to contact him within 3 hours and 26 minutes.    Sam's Journey   While Sam worked as a talk radio host, his team asked if he could build their website and find a way to make money off it. He didn't know much about websites so he started Googling things and came across HubSpot. As Sam downloaded and read through HubSpot's educational content, he decided he wanted to work for them.    “I built a website called HireMeHubSpot.com, and I got the free credits you get when you sign up for Google, LinkedIn, [and] Facebook ads, and I ran ads targeting people who worked at HubSpot to sign up for the free webinar about why they should hire me. Ironically, it's the best campaign I ever ran. Three hours and 26 minutes later, I got a call from the recruiter,” Sam said.    At HubSpot, Sam helped the company build a software that lets e-commerce companies, such as themselves, beat Amazon.   Sam worked at HubSpot for eight years before leaving to work for Flock. Then, in March 2020, he started his own business building a digital marketplace to connect people who own ad inventory with the brands that value them the most.    Marketing Ourselves   Sam's biggest home run happened because he was able to market himself to HubSpot. Once he decided he wanted to work for their company, he created a free webinar where he marketed his talents and abilities. He did this so well that HubSpot reached out to him less than four hours later, and he got a job working for them. How can we market ourselves like this?   In today's marketplace, it is becoming more and more important to market ourselves. When someone buys our product or service, they are also buying us. Consumers want to feel connected to whoever they are buying from and so we need to learn how to not only market our business, but also ourselves.    When we market ourselves and provide value to our customers, we become the asset. A customer will be more likely to buy from us if they like who we are and what we stand for, if we give them good value, and if they trust us.    3 Ways to Market Ourselves   Here are three ways we can market ourselves.      Know Our Target Audience     Sam researched HubSpot and read their educational content before he created the website, HireMeHubSpot.com and started marketing himself. Before we can start to market ourselves, we need to know who our target audience is. This means we should do research before we start.    Nate Elliot said, “If you want to create messages that resonate with your audience, you need to know what they care about.” When it comes to our customers, we need to understand their needs, values, hobbies, and wants. Who are we trying to sell ourselves to? Are we trying to market ourselves to a customer or a business partner? We should ask, “How can I serve my audience?” The only way we can know this is if we know them.    Once we know who our target audience is, we can determine what value we can offer. Gary Vaynerchuk said, “The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.” The more we care about our audience and understand what they need, the more likely they are to convert to our brand.    It may seem backwards, but it is true. When we focus on our customers instead of ourselves, we can actually market ourselves better. The conversation shouldn't be about how amazing we are, but how we can help our customers in a way that will amaze them.      Show Personality and Stand Out     When we market ourselves, we need to make sure we show our personality. What makes us different from everyone else? What makes us unique? What can we offer that no one else has? We need to have a unique selling point.    Emma Stone said, “What sets you apart can sometimes feel like a burden and it's not. And a lot of the time, it's what makes you great.” We shouldn't be afraid of being different. Our interests and passions show that we're human. We're not just trying to sell a product to our customers, we're also trying to build a relationship. Remember, businesses are shifting to becoming more and more personalized.    According to recent reports, 71% of customers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal and 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides a personal experience (Source: Forbes). When we show more of our personality and become more personalized with our customers, our chances of success increase substantially.    Sam uses his passions to help market himself and his business. He said, “I am really passionate about how we [can] create a world in which small businesses are a viable economic model 20, 30, 100 years from now, given the fact that everything currently is favoring larger and larger companies [with] more and more consolidation.” Since his passion reflects the goal of his new business, OneScreen.ai, he can share it with his audience to show his personality and stand out. It will also help him build trust and credibility with his audience members.    Coco Chanel, a French fashion designer and businesswoman, said, “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”     Build Trust and Credibility     Credibility marketing is one of the biggest tectonic shifts I've seen today. Customers simply don't trust advertisements the way they used to. We have to market ourselves in ways that show we are trustworthy and credible.    One way to build trust is to admit when we don't know something or when we are wrong. If a customer asks us a question we simply don't know the answer to, that's okay. Instead of pretending to be perfect and all-knowing, it's actually beneficial to accept that we don't know everything. We are more likely to trust someone who admits when they are wrong compared to someone who pretends to know it all. Admitting we are wrong actually helps us gain trust. People admire others who are willing to acknowledge their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions.   Another great way to build trust and credibility is by being reliant. If we say we're going to do something, we better do it. If we tell a customer we have great customer service and will listen to their feedback, we better do that. If our website promises a response to a question, we better respond. If we don't fulfill the promises that we give, our customers aren't going to know what they can trust us with. People will begin to doubt if we are committed to any of our promises.    Finally, another great way to build trust is to communicate with our customers and simply listen to them. Listening shows that we respect and care about what our customers say.   Key Takeaways   Thank you so much Sam for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:   When someone buys our product or service, they are also buying us. We need to become a personal brand and learn how to market ourselves.  Customers are more likely to make a purchase when a brand provides a personal experience.  Before we can start to market ourselves, we need to know who our target audience is.  If we want to share messages that resonate with our audience, we need to know what they care about. We need to show our personality. What makes us different from everyone else? We need to provide a unique selling point.  We can build trust with our audience by being reliant and admitting when we are wrong or don't know something.    Connect with Sam   If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Sam or connect with him, you can find him on his LinkedIn or visit his website, www.onescreen.ai.    Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?   Did you like today's episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:   Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.  Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.   Share Your Story    How do you market yourself? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.    Sam Mallikarjunan is the co-author of the book, Inbound Commerce: How to Sell Better Than Amazon, which is ironically the number one bestseller in its category on Amazon. Sam is the CEO and founder of OneScreen.ai, an Internet of Things (IOT) enabled ad marketplace for the physical world. He is also the former Chief Revenue Officer of Flock.com and the former head of growth at HubSpot Labs. Sam taught advanced digital marketing innovation management and strategic economics at Harvard University. He is also the faculty chair for the digital marketing department at the University of South Florida.    In today's episode, we're going to discuss Sam's journey, how we can market ourselves, and how to get a job with our dream company. Sam shares his story of how he got a  recruiter from his dream company to contact him within 3 hours and 26 minutes.    Sam's Journey   While Sam worked as a talk radio host, his team asked if he could build their website and find a way to make money off it. He didn't know much about websites so he started Googling things and came across HubSpot. As Sam downloaded and read through HubSpot's educational content, he decided he wanted to work for them.    “I built a website called HireMeHubSpot.com, and I got the free credits you get when you sign up for Google, LinkedIn, [and] Facebook ads, and I ran ads targeting people who worked at HubSpot to sign up for the free webinar about why they should hire me. Ironically, it's the best campaign I ever ran. Three hours and 26 minutes later, I got a call from the recruiter,” Sam said.    At HubSpot, Sam helped the company build a software that lets e-commerce companies, such as themselves, beat Amazon.   Sam worked at HubSpot for eight years before leaving to work for Flock. Then, in March 2020, he started his own business building a digital marketplace to connect people who own ad inventory with the brands that value them the most.    Marketing Ourselves   Sam's biggest home run happened because he was able to market himself to HubSpot. Once he decided he wanted to work for their company, he created a free webinar where he marketed his talents and abilities. He did this so well that HubSpot reached out to him less than four hours later, and he got a job working for them. How can we market ourselves like this?   In today's marketplace, it is becoming more and more important to market ourselves. When someone buys our product or service, they are also buying us. Consumers want to feel connected to whoever they are buying from and so we need to learn how to not only market our business, but also ourselves.    When we market ourselves and provide value to our customers, we become the asset. A customer will be more likely to buy from us if they like who we are and what we stand for, if we give them good value, and if they trust us.    3 Ways to Market Ourselves   Here are three ways we can market ourselves.      Know Our Target Audience     Sam researched HubSpot and read their educational content before he created the website, HireMeHubSpot.com and started marketing himself. Before we can start to market ourselves, we need to know who our target audience is. This means we should do research before we start.    Nate Elliot said, “If you want to create messages that resonate with your audience, you need to know what they care about.” When it comes to our customers, we need to understand their needs, values, hobbies, and wants. Who are we trying to sell ourselves to? Are we trying to market ourselves to a customer or a business partner? We should ask, “How can I serve my audience?” The only way we can know this is if we know them.    Once we know who our target audience is, we can determine what value we can offer. Gary Vaynerchuk said, “The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.” The more we care about our audience and understand what they need, the more likely they are to convert to our brand.    It may seem backwards, but it is true. When we focus on our customers instead of ourselves, we can actually market ourselves better. The conversation shouldn't be about how amazing we are, but how we can help our customers in a way that will amaze them.      Show Personality and Stand Out     When we market ourselves, we need to make sure we show our personality. What makes us different from everyone else? What makes us unique? What can we offer that no one else has? We need to have a unique selling point.    Emma Stone said, “What sets you apart can sometimes feel like a burden and it's not. And a lot of the time, it's what makes you great.” We shouldn't be afraid of being different. Our interests and passions show that we're human. We're not just trying to sell a product to our customers, we're also trying to build a relationship. Remember, businesses are shifting to becoming more and more personalized.    According to recent reports, 71% of customers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal and 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides a personal experience (Source: Forbes). When we show more of our personality and become more personalized with our customers, our chances of success increase substantially.    Sam uses his passions to help market himself and his business. He said, “I am really passionate about how we [can] create a world in which small businesses are a viable economic model 20, 30, 100 years from now, given the fact that everything currently is favoring larger and larger companies [with] more and more consolidation.” Since his passion reflects the goal of his new business, OneScreen.ai, he can share it with his audience to show his personality and stand out. It will also help him build trust and credibility with his audience members.    Coco Chanel, a French fashion designer and businesswoman, said, “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”     Build Trust and Credibility     Credibility marketing is one of the biggest tectonic shifts I've seen today. Customers simply don't trust advertisements the way they used to. We have to market ourselves in ways that show we are trustworthy and credible.    One way to build trust is to admit when we don't know something or when we are wrong. If a customer asks us a question we simply don't know the answer to, that's okay. Instead of pretending to be perfect and all-knowing, it's actually beneficial to accept that we don't know everything. We are more likely to trust someone who admits when they are wrong compared to someone who pretends to know it all. Admitting we are wrong actually helps us gain trust. People admire others who are willing to acknowledge their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions.   Another great way to build trust and credibility is by being reliant. If we say we're going to do something, we better do it. If we tell a customer we have great customer service and will listen to their feedback, we better do that. If our website promises a response to a question, we better respond. If we don't fulfill the promises that we give, our customers aren't going to know what they can trust us with. People will begin to doubt if we are committed to any of our promises.    Finally, another great way to build trust is to communicate with our customers and simply listen to them. Listening shows that we respect and care about what our customers say.   Key Takeaways   Thank you so much Sam for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:   When someone buys our product or service, they are also buying us. We need to become a personal brand and learn how to market ourselves.  Customers are more likely to make a purchase when a brand provides a personal experience.  Before we can start to market ourselves, we need to know who our target audience is.  If we want to share messages that resonate with our audience, we need to know what they care about. We need to show our personality. What makes us different from everyone else? We need to provide a unique selling point.  We can build trust with our audience by being reliant and admitting when we are wrong or don't know something.    Connect with Sam   If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Sam or connect with him, you can find him on his LinkedIn or visit his website, www.onescreen.ai.    Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?   Did you like today's episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:   Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.  Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.   Share Your Story    How do you market yourself? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.    Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/124-how-to-get-a-job-with-your-dream-company/ 

What's your excuse for not hitting financial freedom? Maybe you work at a low paying job, maybe you only have one income for your household, or maybe you're caring for a few kids, limiting the income you can save and invest. Prepare to have your excuses obliterated, because today we're talking to Rob and Sam, who raised their 14 children on one income alone. And we aren't talking about a $500k per year income, we're talking about a median income!Rob and Sam always wanted a big family, and luckily, they were raised in frugal households, allowing them to save every penny, shop the deals, and have a budget. While Sam was at home raising the children, Rob was out working and slowly paying off their house early, without Sam's knowledge. One day, Rob told Sam that the house was paid off, which came as a huge surprise to her!He had also been maxing out their Roth IRAs, his 401(k), and their HSAs. Rob was doing all this while comfortably raising 14 children. How is that even possible? Well, you can learn all about their tips, tricks, and budgeting tactics by buying their new book: A Catholic Guide to Spending Less and Living More: Advice from a Debt-Free Family of 16! In This Episode We CoverSetting up budgeting, expense tracking, and being deliberate with your spendingMaxing out your 401(k) match, your Roth IRA, and your HSABeing frugal so you have more money to spend on the important thingsFixing up a foreclosed house to save money when shopping for a homeGetting out of debt so you can tackle bigger (good) debtsBecoming intentional with your spending, saving, and investingRaising a family of 16 with a single incomeAnd So Much More!Links from the ShowBiggerPockets Money Facebook GroupBiggerPockets ForumsFinance Review Guest OnboardingScott's InstagramMindy's TwitterMad FientistCheck the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/moneyshow203

John Walker's choices have big consequences in Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 "The Whole World Is Watching". We chat all about another excellent episode of the show in full spoiler filled detail. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 Synopsis Episode Written by: Derek Kolstad Episode Directed By: Kari Skogland Investigations at the GRC centre reveal that Karli Morgenthau will be at the funeral for her adoptive mother Momma Danja, but unknown to Baron Zemo and Sam Wilson is that Ayo has given Bucky 8 hours until the Dora Milaje will take Zemo for the murder of their king T’Chaka. As they head to the funeral they are intercepted by John Walker and Lamar Hoskins. While Sam wants to speak with Karli in an attempt to understand her actions and persuade her to end her violence, an impatient Captain America intervenes with force. Zemo slips away and manages to destroy most of the super soldier serum, but he is knocked out by Walker who secretly takes the last vial of serum. Back at Zemo’s apartment, Ayo and the Dora Milaje come for Zemo, but Walker refuses to hand him over. Walker is beaten and humiliated by the Dora Milaje, while Zemo manages to quietly slip away and escapes his would be captors. Later that day Sam meets with Karli again after she had threatened his sister and nephews, where she tries to persuade him to join the Flag Smashers. Meanwhile, Walker and Hoskins engage with other Flag Smashers, where Lamar is killed accidentally by Karli. Enraged by the death of his friend and having taken the last vial of serum Captain America chases down and kills one of the Flag Smashers for all to see. As Captain America’s shield drips with blood a group of horrified spectators along with Karli watches on. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Cast Sam Wilson played by Anthony MackieJames Buchanan Barnes played by Sebastian StanDoctor Raynor played by Amy AquinoSarah Wilson played by Adepero OduyeFirst Lieutenant Joaquin Torres played by Danny RamirezJohn Walker played by Wyatt RussellLeah played by Miki IshikawaMr. Yuri Nakajima played by Ken TakemotoWith Batroc the Leaper played by Georges St-PierreAnd Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes played by Don Cheadle A Return to Defending As we are returning to the Marvel TV universe we are using the format of our former Marvel podcast, Defenders TV Podcast. We discuss: - Our Top 5 Bullet Points of the episode - Whether we each Defend the episode or not - Notes, Quotes and comic references Falcon and The Winter Soldier Pub Quiz During each podcast we'll ask a question about each episode in our Falcon and The Winter Soldier Pub Quiz. You can send in your answers each week to feedback@tvpodcastindustries.com At the end of the six episode series the listeners with the most correct answers will be in with the chance of getting their hands on some Falcon and The Winter Soldier Funko Pops. All questions will be updated on: https://www.tvpodcastindustries.com Feedback for Falcon and The Winter Soldier Once you've watched the episodes you can email us to feedback@tvpodcastindustries.com, you can message us @TVPodIndustries on Twitter or join our Facebook group at https://facebook.com/groups/tvpodcastindustries and share your thoughts in our spoiler posts for each episode. Follow us and Subscribe to the Podcast If you want to keep up with us and all of our podcasts, please subscribe to the podcast over at https://tvpodcastindustries.com. Where we will continue to podcast about multiple TV shows we hope you'll love. Next time on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Podcast We'll be back next week to discuss The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 5. We'll be recording on Saturday 17th of April so get your thoughts in as soon as you can for next week's feedback section. You can also join us for our podcasts about Invincible, Robert (Walking Dead) Kirkman on Amazon Prime our reviews of the first fou...

Big choices have big consequences for John Walker in Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 "The Whole World Is Watching". We chat all about another excellent episode of the show in full spoiler filled detail. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 Synopsis Episode Written by: Derek Kolstad Episode Directed By: Kari Skogland Investigations at the GRC centre reveal that Karli Morgenthau will be at the funeral for her adoptive mother Momma Danja, but unknown to Baron Zemo and Sam Wilson is that Ayo has given Bucky 8 hours until the Dora Milaje will take Zemo for the murder of their king T'Chaka. As they head to the funeral they are intercepted by John Walker and Lamar Hoskins. While Sam wants to speak with Karli in an attempt to understand her actions and persuade her to end her violence, an impatient Captain America intervenes with force. Zemo slips away and manages to destroy most of the super soldier serum, but he is knocked out by Walker who secretly takes the last vial of serum. Back at Zemo's apartment, Ayo and the Dora Milaje come for Zemo, but Walker refuses to hand him over. Walker is beaten and humiliated by the Dora Milaje, while Zemo manages to quietly slip away and escapes his would be captors. Later that day Sam meets with Karli again after she had threatened his sister and nephews, where she tries to persuade him to join the Flag Smashers. Meanwhile, Walker and Hoskins engage with other Flag Smashers, where Lamar is killed accidentally by Karli. Enraged by the death of his friend and having taken the last vial of serum Captain America chases down and kills one of the Flag Smashers for all to see. As Captain America's shield drips with blood a group of horrified spectators along with Karli watches on. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Cast Sam Wilson played by Anthony MackieJames Buchanan Barnes played by Sebastian StanDoctor Raynor played by Amy AquinoSarah Wilson played by Adepero OduyeFirst Lieutenant Joaquin Torres played by Danny RamirezJohn Walker played by Wyatt RussellLeah played by Miki IshikawaMr. Yuri Nakajima played by Ken TakemotoWith Batroc the Leaper played by Georges St-PierreAnd Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes played by Don Cheadle A Return to Defending As we are returning to the Marvel TV universe we are using the format of our former Marvel podcast, Defenders TV Podcast. We discuss: - Our Top 5 Bullet Points of the episode - Whether we each Defend the episode or not - Notes, Quotes and comic references Falcon and The Winter Soldier Pub Quiz During each podcast we'll ask a question about each episode in our Falcon and The Winter Soldier Pub Quiz. You can send in your answers each week to feedback@tvpodcastindustries.com At the end of the six episode series the listeners with the most correct answers will be in with the chance of getting their hands on some Falcon and The Winter Soldier Funko Pops. All questions will be updated on: https://www.tvpodcastindustries.com Feedback for Falcon and The Winter Soldier Once you've watched the episodes you can email us to feedback@tvpodcastindustries.com, you can message us @TVPodIndustries on Twitter or join our Facebook group at https://facebook.com/groups/tvpodcastindustries and share your thoughts in our spoiler posts for each episode. Follow us and Subscribe to the Podcast If you want to keep up with us and all of our podcasts, please subscribe to the podcast over at https://tvpodcastindustries.com. Where we will continue to podcast about multiple TV shows we hope you'll love. Next time on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Podcast We'll be back next week to discuss The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 5. We'll be recording on Saturday 17th of April so get your thoughts in as soon as you can for next week's feedback section. You can also join us for our podcasts about Invincible, Robert (Walking Dead) Kirkman on Amazon Prime our reviews of the fir...

Big choices have big consequences for John Walker in Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 "The Whole World Is Watching". We chat all about another excellent episode of the show in full spoiler filled detail. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 Synopsis Episode Written by: Derek Kolstad Episode Directed By: Kari Skogland Investigations at the GRC centre reveal that Karli Morgenthau will be at the funeral for her adoptive mother Momma Danja, but unknown to Baron Zemo and Sam Wilson is that Ayo has given Bucky 8 hours until the Dora Milaje will take Zemo for the murder of their king T’Chaka. As they head to the funeral they are intercepted by John Walker and Lamar Hoskins. While Sam wants to speak with Karli in an attempt to understand her actions and persuade her to end her violence, an impatient Captain America intervenes with force. Zemo slips away and manages to destroy most of the super soldier serum, but he is knocked out by Walker who secretly takes the last vial of serum. Back at Zemo’s apartment, Ayo and the Dora Milaje come for Zemo, but Walker refuses to hand him over. Walker is beaten and humiliated by the Dora Milaje, while Zemo manages to quietly slip away and escapes his would be captors. Later that day Sam meets with Karli again after she had threatened his sister and nephews, where she tries to persuade him to join the Flag Smashers. Meanwhile, Walker and Hoskins engage with other Flag Smashers, where Lamar is killed accidentally by Karli. Enraged by the death of his friend and having taken the last vial of serum Captain America chases down and kills one of the Flag Smashers for all to see. As Captain America’s shield drips with blood a group of horrified spectators along with Karli watches on. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Cast Sam Wilson played by Anthony MackieJames Buchanan Barnes played by Sebastian StanDoctor Raynor played by Amy AquinoSarah Wilson played by Adepero OduyeFirst Lieutenant Joaquin Torres played by Danny RamirezJohn Walker played by Wyatt RussellLeah played by Miki IshikawaMr. Yuri Nakajima played by Ken TakemotoWith Batroc the Leaper played by Georges St-PierreAnd Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes played by Don Cheadle A Return to Defending As we are returning to the Marvel TV universe we are using the format of our former Marvel podcast, Defenders TV Podcast. We discuss: - Our Top 5 Bullet Points of the episode - Whether we each Defend the episode or not - Notes, Quotes and comic references Falcon and The Winter Soldier Pub Quiz During each podcast we'll ask a question about each episode in our Falcon and The Winter Soldier Pub Quiz. You can send in your answers each week to feedback@tvpodcastindustries.com At the end of the six episode series the listeners with the most correct answers will be in with the chance of getting their hands on some Falcon and The Winter Soldier Funko Pops. All questions will be updated on: https://www.tvpodcastindustries.com Feedback for Falcon and The Winter Soldier Once you've watched the episodes you can email us to feedback@tvpodcastindustries.com, you can message us @TVPodIndustries on Twitter or join our Facebook group at https://facebook.com/groups/tvpodcastindustries and share your thoughts in our spoiler posts for each episode. Follow us and Subscribe to the Podcast If you want to keep up with us and all of our podcasts, please subscribe to the podcast over at https://tvpodcastindustries.com. Where we will continue to podcast about multiple TV shows we hope you'll love. Next time on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Podcast We'll be back next week to discuss The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 5. We'll be recording on Saturday 17th of April so get your thoughts in as soon as you can for next week's feedback section. You can also join us for our podcasts about Invincible, Robert (Walking Dead) Kirkman on Amazon Prime our reviews of the fir...

While Sam is learning the joys of new parenthood, Henry will be flying solo this week sharing general thoughts on Superman & Lois episode 3.Henry: In our first episode I shared my lists of top 5 Superman things from tv. So here are the rest of my lists. Perry White:George Dzundza (TAS)Lane Smith (L&C:NAoS)John Hamilton (50’s TAoS)Michael McKean (Smallville)Stanley Ralph Ross (1988 Ruby Spears)Jimmy OlsenJack LarsonMichael Landes (L&C:NAoS Season 1)Aaron Ashmore (Smallville)David Kaufmen (TAS)Mark L Taylor (1988 Ruby Spears)Jonathan and Martha:John Schneider and Annette O'Toole (Smallville)Eddie Jones and K Callan - (L&C:NAoS)Shelley Fabares and Mike Farrell  (TAS)Alan Oppenheimer and Tress MacNeille (Ruby Spears)Stuart Whitman and Salome Jens (Superboy) Superman & LoisSeason 1 Episode 3: The Perks of Not Being A WallflowerEpisode breakdown: “Clark shares some of his Kryptonian history with Jordan and Jonathan during a family breakfast. Jordan tries out for the high school football team, and the rest of his family wonders if he's using his super-strength to unfair advantage. meanwhile, Lois digs further into Edge's activities in Smallville, and a lead from New Carthage comes to her.”

This week’s Panic guest, Sam Jones, called in all the way from Oxford to chat with me. Sam is a good friend, unbelievable entrepreneur, and co-founder of the social commerce app “OOOOO.” I was lucky enough to be a small investor in the company. To put it simply, OOOOO is basically “Only Fans” meets commerce – enabling live entertainment commerce. While Sam started “OOOOO” only about a year ago, it has seen impressive growth and success. The work Sam is doing is fascinating and he thoughtfully explains it so well on the podcast. In this episode, Sam digs into ecommerce, OOOOO, his company’s growth and retail share model, China & Pinduoduo, his plans for a documentary, the culture and business of live streaming, and more.  Guest - Sam Jones, Co-founder and CEO at OOOOO.com  howardlindzon.com, ooooo.com  Twitter: @howardlindzon, @ooooobloke, @knutjensen  linkedin.com/in/sam-jones-0a16533 #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:   Topics: -We discuss where our businesses stand for the year after the financial affects of COVID -Jerry & Joe share a moment discussing a job they collaborated on. -What appeared to be a standard Wi-Fi upgrade takes a left turn as they have to focus on a printer that simply won’t connect. -Is a wooden box waterproof? -Did Sam need to be on the show this week? -Joe finds that there is no reboot option in the GUI for the UniFi Dream Machine Pro so he describes how to SSH to the device and send a reboot command. -From the Reddit Eero forum, Jerry has been hearing a lot of rumbling and negative feedback about the new Eero Pro 6. Joe backs up Eero’s responses. -What Apple devices support Wi-Fi 6? -As Joe assists a client with extending Wi-Fi coverage by phone, it creates more questions for us as far as billing and planning. While Sam thinks it takes less work, Joe counters that there is more work on the planning and preparing side of things.

Listen again to our podcast from February. Food history and writing are both under the spotlight this week, as two culinary wordsmiths share their very different outlets for gourmet expression.  Sam Bilton is a freelance food historian, writer and cook who also runs a supper club, Repast, where she showcases her modern interpretations of historical food. If you fancy a blast from the past, you need to get a seat at Sam's table, but what is her own favourite gastronomic era? Her answer might just surprise you… Once they've finished tucking into yesterday's delicacies, Sue, Ollie and Holly welcome Zeren Wilson, acclaimed writer of Bitten and Written, which was crowned Best Food Blog at the 2019 Guild of Food Writers Awards. After a lively discussion about the do's and don'ts of negative restaurant reviews, Zeren's experience in wine selling leads the team to explore the role of beverages throughout the ages. While Sam and Zeren are no strangers to adding colour to their writing, Exberry has been doing that in a more literal sense for over 40 years. By using fruits, vegetables, edible plants and water, Exberry helps food manufacturers to make their products look amazing, the natural way. Paul Collins is here to tell us more about the company's colourful history.

While Sam attempts to protect the Christmas tree from the cats, join James as he reads a spooky yuletide tale, "A Neighbour's Landmark" by the renowned master of the ghost story, M.R. James. Sit back and warm yourself by the fireplace... before you feel a chill run down your spine. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram @scaringsampod, and get in touch at scaringsampod@gmail.com. Please rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts, it's always appreciated. And of course... stay safe out there tonight.

Pop Art Painter Jamie Roxx (www.JamieRoxx.us) welcomes Dale Fabrigar (Director) Middleton Christmas; Film, Romance, to the Show!    IMDB: www.imdb.com/title/tt10993786  http://dalefabrigar.com Michael Pare (Eddie & The Cruisers, The Virgin Suicides) and Eileen Davidson (“The Young & The Restless”) star in a joyous Christmas treat, Middleton Christmas. Vivacious high school senior Samantha finds herself attracted to Max, the quiet new kid at her prestigious private school, Middleton Prep. The trouble is: Sam already has a boyfriend, basketball star Lucas. While Sam wrestles with her feelings about both guys, her mother, school dean Alana, recruits Max and his father Johnny, the new maintenance man, to help out with a Christmas fundraiser that could save the school from being closed. But when Sam’s life is threatened in a serious car accident, Alana and Johnny grow closer, even as Max and Lucas both realize how much they each care for her, culminating in a decision that will change their lives forever.  With Christmas approaching, everyone in Middleton must question their values about sacrifice, family, and love -- and learn what it means to just be thankful for another Christmas. Media Inquiries for Middleton Christmas, Film: October Coast www.octobercoastpr.com

Tianna smokes some Blue Diesel, a hybrid cross between Blueberry and NYC Diesel, known to create a pleasant and long lasting body high. Which is just what she needs for this wake & bake election day session. While Sam’s off the grid in Montana, blissfully unaware as the ballot count begins, Tianna is joined by friend and comedian Mav Viola. They soothe their election day jitters and maintain hope as they discuss their predictions on how the day may play out, when we might be able to declare a winner, and how to handle a narcissist. Does trump even want to win? Will Mav ever return Tianna’s DVD? Light up & tune in to find out!

Aimee Molloy, the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mother, joins Carol to discuss her second novel, Goodnight Beautiful. It is one of those books Carol simply cannot stop talking about, with stellar twists that are so well plotted. In Goodnight Beautiful, Sam, a psychotherapist, and Annie are newly married. While Sam works long hours with his patients, he doesn't realize that every word can be clearly heard upstairs through a floor vent upstairs. Then Sam goes missing, forcing Annie to try to figure out what happened to him. Aimee shares how she shelved another book, just as it was due to the publisher, and went forth instead with the plot for this one! It’s a great publishing story. They discuss her journey in becoming a novelist, and the ways her own marriage may accidentally have had a part in accidentally influencing her work. Books discussed in this episode: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy Sign up for the weekly Bookreporter.com newsletter here FOLLOW US Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookreporter Website: https://www.bookreporter.com

While Sam is unavailable, Max doesn't feel lonely as all four members of Teenage Dads join him to chat about their latest track, Thank You For the Honey, Honey, why they're still waiting on Dickies trousers, and their upcoming Mike Myers themed live show at the Frankston Arts Centre.Connect with Teenage Dads on Instagram, and Facebook. Check out Thank You For The Honey, Honey on Spotify and Apple Music.Get more new music and hear your favourite artists on Instagram, on Facebook, or on our website, www.78amped.com

Join our team as Rok and Yeager stay determined to complete their mission. While Sam and Raegan struggle with their connection to the light at the heart of the Gray City.

It's disco fever time and the hottest club in LA manages to be one of the lamest clubs in LA at the same time. It's Jeff Goldblum, Donna Summer, Debra Winger and the Commodores giving us a 90 minute infomercial about disco life. While Sam manages to be correct that this film doesn't have a plot, he's wrong in that it isn't any fun. Sure, it's not going to be for everyone - pretty much if you won't even admit that there was any decent songs during the disco era (I say screw you) you're not going to like any of this. Not because it's chock full of disco (it's mostly funk music) but because disco was so content-free and so is this film. With that in mind, if you are a fan of American Graffiti, you aren't at least adverse to this type of project. We'll be honest with ourselves though. We think that this could be right on the fence of a do or don't, until Marv Gomez, "The Leatherman" has his big scene. Once he proclaims that everything besides dancing is "bullshit" the film gets a much needed injection of nonsense. From there on out, you're in for a good time and it becomes a definite do. So put on your all-cotton shirt and your leather pants and enjoy some disco bologna. We certainly did.

Pilot episode. We learn a little back story and get the ball rolling. While Sam and Dean head off looking for Dad, they stop to fight a ghost in the meantime.

There's action right from the onset of this episode, and the group flees from one "safe-house" to another. While Sam gets some key info that will blow away some of the fog, a couple new wrinkles are added however. It seems the android components of the group will be adding more complications and glitches than first thought. System: OpenD6 Adventure, from West End Games CAST: Jordan — The Game Master Aaron — Sam Feluge Ellie — Archi Jeff — Jerr Lan Jeremy — Julian Illix and Bear Johnny — Chine North

Ali Weinstein and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film #Blessed, mermaids, fear of rejection, authenticity, mega churches and loneliness and finding ourselves disenchanted with modern life.Trailer hereWatch #Blessed on CBC POV Docs here.Synopsis:C3 is an Evangelical church that opened in Toronto in 2013, quickly amassing a large following amongst the city’s young, hip and tattooed. #BLESSED offers an intimate look inside this fast-growing millennial church and follows the process of selling salvation in the 21st century as Pastor Sam and his team grow the church from two locations to three, living out their mission to save as many Torontonian souls as possible.While following Sam as he works to set up his newest church, the film also tells the stories of several of the church’s young members, who let us in on what compelled them to search for salvation. Aspiring pastor David works on a new and chaste relationship with his girlfriend Mona as he prepares to go to C3 College in Australia for a year. Former party girl Aimee’s life does a 180 as she turns from coke and a relationship with a woman to a celibate and church centred life. And Conan throws himself further into the church community while struggling to believe. We also meet Galen, a young academic studying C3, who wants to get to the bottom of what is making this church so attractive to millennials and raises questions about the church’s tactics.Though millennials are incessantly in touch with the world, constantly over sharing and over consuming on their phones, it’s no secret that this generation is lonelier than ever. C3 offers messages of love and community to its followers, along with a weekly rock show and traditional Evangelical values. Much like the other viral church start-ups of the 21st century, this church is tapping into something very real and apparently very needed in the hearts of millennials. While Sam and his team have given church a modern rebranding, it becomes clear as the characters’ stories unfold that what these youth are searching for is not new at all. But how will C3’s new followers react to the church’s conservative Christian values beneath the shiny new packaging?About Ali:Ali Weinstein is a documentary director and producer based in Toronto. Her directorial debut MERMAIDS, about a group of women who strongly identify with the powerful aquatic archetype, premiered at Hot Docs in 2017. Mermaids has screened at many international festivals since and has been broadcast in Canada, Israel, Brazil, France, and Germany. In 2018, Ali co-directed The Impossible Swim for TSN as part of their Engraved on a Nation series. She has two films at this year’s Hot Docs Festival – she directed #Blessed (CBC Docs POV) about the stunning success of an evangelical church amongst Toronto millennials, and she produced Lulu Wei’s There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace (CBC Docs POV) about the redevelopment of the iconic Toronto block where the world famous Honest Ed's store once lived.She holds an MFA in Documentary Media Studies from Ryerson University, and her previous work includes two years as Associate Producer at Primitive Entertainment. Ali is also a proud board member of Breakthroughs Film Festival, Canada’s only festival devoted to showcasing short films by emerging women identified and non-binary directors.Image Copyright and Credit: Ali Weinstein and Notice Pictures.F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.For more information about David Peck’s podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anna is a woman who is being treated for hearing voices and believing the world is going to end. The one problem is she's not wrong and both angels and demons are after her. While Sam and Dean try to help, Dean learns what Sam was up to with Ruby the last several months. We explain why 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything, do some "investigative boobie viewing," and wonder what could have happened if Sam took charge of the demon army right from the start. Patreon Twitter Instagram Tumblr Facebook

Of Salons and SoldiersNovember, 1774. While Sam and Nathaniel attend a salon at Governor Hutchinson’s residence, Wendell, Ephraim, and Lawrence witness trouble brewing on the streets of Boston. Sam Merston - The Demagogue (Duck)Nathaniel Morris - The Patron (rockinghorsedreams)Lawrence Walwyn - The Propagandist (Rex Gator)Wendell White - The Brute (Kyle)Ephraim Cooper - The Worker (Matt A)GM - Leroy Fife and Drum Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

My husband and I adopted Sam, a Quaker parrot, when he was 3 years old. His previous owner, who’d grown too ill to keep Sam, had treated him well and taught him a few phrases. Sam’s limited repertoire then -- and now -- includes laughter, “ma,” “hello” and “yum yum.” While Sam is not terribly fluent, he has inadvertently become an ESL -- English as a Second Language -- instructor. Sam fit into our household immediately, often flying on top of the parakeets’ cage. One of the parakeets, Gordie, would often fly up to visit with Sam. After Louie, the elderly parakeet, passed away, we moved Sam’s cage next to Gordie’s. Sam can often be found just outside of Gordie’s cage. I had wondered how they communicated. Ornithologists have acknowledged that different species of birds recognize each other’s alarm calls -- but what about the conversation of friendly birds? One day, I thought I heard “hello” coming from Gordie’s cage. At first, I figured that I must have imagined this. Then it happened

Social media is a powerful tool for getting your animations out there and finding more work as a freelancer. However, actually connecting with the right people is not a straightforward task. To clear up any confusion, We’ve brought on a freelance motion designer who has 25k followers on Instagram to share how to use Instagram as a motion graphic designer. How to make the jump into being a freelance motion designer Sam Burton is an expert in using Instagram to create opportunities for his freelance business. For the last 10 years, he has worked on a large variety of projects including animated commercials, broadcast design, and music videos. Sam and I chat about how he transitioned to freelance work. Sam didn’t make this change in a day. It was a gradual process where he did personal work on the side and built up contacts before resigning from his studio job. Using Instagram to get motion design opportunities While Sam started his Instagram channel as a way to share his work, it became much more. Now he uses it as a tool to find all sorts of work and collaborate with other motion designers. This led to vast opportunities Sam wouldn’t have found otherwise. Most important of all, Sam suggests just putting out work that you are passionate to create. This means ignoring the number of likes and followers you get. Focus on creating good work and you will get noticed. Know your motion graphics hashtags Sam also recommends knowing your hashtags. They are a great way to get your work in front of different eyes. Incorporating sound into your posts is also a way to stand out and connect with more people. Simply put, there are strategies you can use to set your animations apart and make it your own. This will naturally lead to more engagement and more work. In this episode Factors to consider before making the jump into freelance work Using Instagram as a networking tool Why the numbers don’t matter as much as you might think on social media Why it’s important to use the right hashtags to get your posts shared Incorporating sound in your posts to create strategic partnerships Using outside inspiration to set your animations apart and make them relevant Balancing personal work with client work as a freelancer The potential of other social media platforms to promote motion design work Quotes  “You never quite know who’s going to see the work you’re putting on Instagram. It might lead to a job. It might not. But it might lead to a connection with someone you admire. It might lead to meeting up with some people at your next event. Everyone’s on it.” [8:18] “The work you put out there should be work that you enjoy making and that you’re inspired to do -- that brings you pleasure and joy.” [10:36] “Each hashtag puts your image into a whole other pool of work that can be seen by a whole different audience.” [16:01] “For potential clients and other studios, if they see you in a teacher role giving tips and advice, that shows you as more of an expert of your craft.” [34:38] Related links Find Sam Burton online Follow Sam on Instagram | Dribbble | Vimeo | Twitter Follow Motion Hatch on Instagram | Tiktok School of Motion Article on Instagram Motion Design Communities on Instagram  The Design Tip Motion Lovers Motion Designers GFX.Mob Motion Mob Motion Graphics Inspiration Motion Graphics Place Graphics Daily P L S U R  Motion Mood Motion Mate Buck Later Buffer Linktree   Related episodes How to use LinkedIn to get direct clients with Mair Perkins How to use social media to get more clients with Golden Wolf   Thanks for Listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help. Subscribe on iTunes. Podcast music licensed by Big Waves sonosanctus.com dankoch.net Some of the links above are affiliate links. Basically, this means that if you decide to make a purchase through one of these links, we will earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. You can be sure that we would recommend these products whether or not we made any commission on them. Please don’t spend your money on them if you don’t think that they will truly help you improve your business, although, in our experience, they will.

Topics: -Jerry & Sam sit down to talk about how current times are affecting our businesses -Next week we will have Adam Engst from The TidBITS Content Network to talk more about tips for operating our businesses during trying times -Sam describes reaching out to monthly clients to make them aware of remote support for the next couple of weeks -Speaking of TidBITS Content Network, Jerry talks about reaching out to clients with information -Sam is very curious about how our fellow consultants are handling the situation -Due to a Jamf 200 class coming up, Sam has to be in New York City this week and expresses his concern. But it does make him think about how to handle interactions -Misinformation on social media aggravates Sam tremendously -Supply availability is a very real issue in Jerry’s parts -Jerry has small client visits this week that he is keeping on the calendar as of now -Remote access has been a feature that is keeping some of us very busy -Chrome Remote Desktop is a decent alternative for remote access that can be used in smaller environments: https://remotedesktop.google.com -Syncing a local Synology NAS with a cloud service can make access to data simpler -While Sam has not sent out a message to all of his clients but Jerry has taken the step of keeping his clients informed -ACEs Conference has been postponed until October 20-21, 2020.  Justin & team are working to hold a virtual conference May 19-20 and Command Control Power will be a part of it!  10% of ticket sales are being donated to No Kid Hungry.  Stay tuned for more information. -If you have topics or something you would like to discuss on the show or mail in to the show, let us know!

While Sam & Corinne are babysitting in Hawaii, Rande Vick, our worship leader at Genesis continued in our "Inspire" series today with part 6 - Music!

While Sam & Corinne are babysitting in Hawaii, Rande Vick, our worship leader at Genesis continued in our "Inspire" series today with part 6 - Music!

In this bonus episode, Sam and Ellen share their recent experience at the FLOW: RENEW energy healing day retreat for women of color. While Sam focused on releasing her anxiety around her impending move, Ellen learned that in order to surrender, she first needed to know how to receive. This event was organized by the following reiki masters: Stephanie Syd Yang: bluejaguarlove.com Susanna Peace Lovell: susannapeacelovell.com Sofia Rose Smith: sofiarosesmith.com    

While Sam and Rebecca were at CES, Dan spoke with John Dandrow and Randy Bader of Radenso Radar to discuss Rai and Theia, their new AI-based technology.

So much going on! While Sam is on the run from one of Anubis's super soldiers, the truce between the Jaffa and Tok'ra is hanging by a thread during talks at the SGC. Where does this episode succeed where others have recently failed? Subscribe & listen now on your favourite podcasting app! Join us and discover or re-live the magic of all things Stargate! Find us on: Facebook: facebook.com/Get-Into-Gate-265524513827574/ Twitter: twitter.com/GetIntoGate Instagram: instagram.com/getintogate Patreon: www.patreon.com/getintogate Get Into Gate is a weekly celebration of all things STARGATE brought to you by the team behind Get Into Geek. When we discovered one of our own, Rhys, had never seen one second of STARGATE and was forever left out of our in-jokes and throwback references, the rest of the team decided to rediscover it with him and breakdown the series one episode at a time.

Episode sixty of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Little Darlin'” by The Gladiolas. Also, an announcement — the book version of the first fifty episodes is now available for purchase. See the show notes, or the previous mini-episode announcing this, for details.  —-more—- Resources The Mixcloud is slightly delayed this week. I’ll update the post tonight with the link. My main source for this episode is Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick. Like all Guralnick’s work, it’s an essential book if you’re even slightly interested in the subject. This is the best compilation of Sam Cooke’s music for the beginner. A note on spelling: Sam Cooke was born Sam Cook, the rest of his family all kept the surname Cook, and he only added the “e” from the release of “You Send Me”, so for almost all the time covered in this episode he was Cook. I didn’t feel the need to mention this in the podcast, as the two names are pronounced identically. I’ve spelled him as Cooke and everyone else as Cook throughout. Book of the Podcast Remember that there’s a book available based on the first fifty episodes of the podcast. You can buy it at this link, which will take you to your preferred online bookstore. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript We’ve talked before about how the music that became known as soul had its roots in gospel music, but today we’re going to have a look at the first big star of that music to get his start as a professional gospel singer, rather than as a rhythm and blues singer who included a little bit of gospel feeling. Sam Cooke was, in many ways, the most important black musician of the late fifties and early sixties, and without him it’s doubtful whether we would have the genre of soul as we know it today. But when he started out, he was someone who worked exclusively in the gospel field, and within that field he was something of a superstar. He was also someone who, as admirable as he was as a singer, was far less admirable in his behaviour towards other people, especially the women in his life, and while that’s something that will come up more in future episodes, it’s worth noting here. Cooke started out as a teenager in the 1940s, performing in gospel groups around Chicago, which as we’ve talked about before was the city where a whole new form of gospel music was being created at that point, spearheaded by Thomas Dorsey. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were all living and performing in the city during young Sam’s formative years, but the biggest influence on him was a group called the Soul Stirrers. The Soul Stirrers had started out in 1926 as a group in what was called the “jubilee” style — the style that black singers of spiritual music sang in the period before Thomas Dorsey revolutionised gospel music. There are no recordings of the Soul Stirrers in that style, but this is probably the most famous jubilee recording: [Excerpt: The Fisk Jubilee Singers, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”] But as Thomas Dorsey and the musicians around him started to create the music we now think of as gospel, the Soul Stirrers switched styles, and became one of the first — and best — gospel quartets in the new style. In the late forties, the Soul Stirrers signed to Specialty Records, one of the first acts to sign to the label, and recorded a series of classic singles led by R.H. Harris, who was regarded by many as the greatest gospel singer of the age: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers feat. R.H. Harris, “In That Awful Hour”] Sam Cooke was one of seven children, the son of Reverend Charles Cook and his wife Annie Mae, and from a very early age the Reverend Cook had been training them as singers — five of them would perform regularly around churches in the area, under the name The Singing Children. Young Sam was taught religion by his father, but he was also taught that there was no prohibition in the Bible against worldly success. Indeed the Reverend Cook taught him two things that would matter in his life even more than his religion would. The first was that whatever it is you do in life, you try to do it the best you can — you never do anything by halves, and if a thing’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly. And the second was that you do whatever is necessary to give yourself the best possible life, and don’t worry about who you step on to do it. After spending some time with his family group, Cooke joined a newly-formed gospel group, who had heard him singing the Ink Spots song “If I Didn’t Care” to a girl. That group was called the Highway QCs, and a version of the group still exists to this day. Sam Cooke only stayed with them a couple of years, and never recorded with them, but they replaced him with a soundalike singer, Johnnie Taylor, and listening to Taylor’s recordings with the group you can get some idea of what they sounded like when Sam was a member: [Excerpt: Johnnie Taylor and the Highway QCs, “I Dreamed That Heaven Was Like This”] The rest of the group were decent singers, but Sam Cooke was absolutely unquestionably the star of the Highway QCs. Creadell Copeland, one of the group’s members, later said “All we had to do was stand behind Sam. Our claim to fame was that Sam’s voice was so captivating we didn’t have to do anything else.” The group didn’t make a huge amount of money, and they kept talking about going in a pop direction, rather than just singing gospel songs, and Sam was certainly singing a lot of secular music in his own time — he loved gospel music as much as anyone, but he was also learning from people like Gene Autry or Bill Kenny of the Ink Spots, and he was slowly developing into a singer who could do absolutely anything with his voice. But his biggest influence was still R.H. Harris of the Soul Stirrers, who was the most important person in the gospel quartet field. This wasn’t just because he was the most talented of all the quartet singers — though he was, and that was certainly part of it — but because he was the joint leader of a movement to professionalise the gospel quartet movement. (Just as a quick explanation — in both black gospel, and in the white gospel music euphemistically called “Southern Gospel”, the term “quartet” is used for groups which might have five, six, or even more people in them. I’ll generally refer to all of these as “groups”, because I’m not from the gospel world, but I’ll use the term “quartet” when talking about things like the National Quartet Convention, and I may slip between the two interchangeably at times. Just know that if I mention quartets, I’m not just talking about groups with exactly four people in them). Harris worked with a less well known singer called Abraham Battle, and with Charlie Bridges, of another popular group, the Famous Blue Jays: [Excerpt: The Famous Blue Jay Singers, “Praising Jesus Evermore”] Together they founded the National Quartet Convention, which existed to try to take all the young gospel quartets who were springing up all over the place, and most of whom had casual attitudes to their music and their onstage appearance, and teach them how to comport themselves in a manner that the organisation’s leaders considered appropriate for a gospel singer. The Highway QCs joined the Convention, of course, and they considered themselves to be disciples, in a sense, of the Soul Stirrers, who they simultaneously considered to be their mentors and thought were jealous of the QCs. It was normal at the time for gospel groups to turn up at each other’s shows, and if they were popular enough they would be invited up to sing, and sometimes even take over the show. When the Highway QCs turned up at Soul Stirrers shows, though, the Soul Stirrers would act as if they didn’t know them, and would only invite them on to the stage if the audience absolutely insisted, and would then limit their performance to a single song. From the Highway QCs’ point of view, the only possible explanation was that the Soul Stirrers were terrified of the competition. A more likely explanation is probably that they were just more interested in putting on their own show than in giving space to some young kids who thought they were the next big thing. On the other hand, to all the younger kids around Chicago, the Highway QCs were clearly the group to beat — and people like a young singer named Lou Rawls looked up to them as something to aspire to. And soon the QCs found themselves being mentored by R.B. Robinson, one of the Soul Stirrers. Robinson would train them, and help them get better gigs, and the QCs became convinced that they were headed for the big time. But it turned out that behind the scenes, there had been trouble in the Soul Stirrers. Harris had, more and more, come to think of himself as the real star of the group, and quit to go solo. It had looked likely for a while that he would do so, and when Robinson had appeared to be mentoring the QCs, what he was actually doing was training their lead singer, so that when R.H. Harris eventually quit, they would have someone to take his place. The other Highway QCs were heartbroken, but Sam took the advice of his father, the Reverend Cook, who told him “Anytime you can make a step higher, you go higher. Don’t worry about the other fellow. You hold up for other folks, and they’ll take advantage of you.” And so, in March 1951, Sam Cooke went into the studio with the Soul Stirrers for his first ever recording session, three months after joining the group. Art Rupe, the head of Specialty Records, was not at all impressed that the group had got a new singer without telling him. Rupe had to admit that Cooke could sing, but his performance on the first few songs, while impressive, was no R.H. Harris: [Excerpt: the Soul Stirrers, “Come, Let Us Go Back to God”] But towards the end of the session, the Soul Stirrers insisted that they should record “Jesus Gave Me Water”, a song that had always been a highlight of the Highway QCs’ set. Rupe thought that this was ridiculous — the Pilgrim Travellers had just had a hit with the song, on Specialty, not six months earlier. What could Specialty possibly do with another version of the song so soon afterwards? But the group insisted, and the result was absolutely majestic: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers, “Jesus Gave Me Water”] Rupe lost his misgivings, both about the song and about the singer — that was clearly going to be the group’s next single. The group themselves were still not completely sure about Cooke as their singer — he was younger than the rest of them, and he didn’t have Harris’ assurance and professionalism, yet. But they knew they had something with that song, which was released with “Peace in the Valley” on the B-side. That song had been written by Thomas Dorsey fourteen years earlier, but this was the first time it had been released on a record, at least by anyone of any prominence. “Jesus Gave Me Water” was a hit, but the follow-ups were less successful, and meanwhile Art Rupe was starting to see the commercial potential in black styles of music other than gospel. Even though Rupe loved gospel music, he realised when “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” became the biggest hit Specialty had ever had to that point that maybe he should refocus the label away from gospel and towards more secular styles of music. “Jesus Gave Me Water” had consolidated Sam as the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers, but while he was singing gospel, he wasn’t living a very godly life. He got married in 1953, but he’d already had at least one child with another woman, who he left with the baby, and he was sleeping around constantly while on the road, and more than once the women involved became pregnant. But Cooke treated women the same way he treated the groups he was in – use them for as long as they’ve got something you want, and then immediately cast them aside once it became inconvenient. For the next few years, the Soul Stirrers would have one recording session every year, and the group continued touring, but they didn’t have any breakout success, even as other Specialty acts like Lloyd Price, Jesse Belvin, and Guitar Slim were all selling hand over fist. The Soul Stirrers were more popular as a live act than as a recording act, and hearing the live recording of them that Bumps Blackwell produced in 1955, it’s easy to see why: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Nearer to Thee”] Bumps Blackwell was convinced that Cooke needed to go solo and become a pop singer, and he was more convinced than ever when he produced the Soul Stirrers in the studio for the first time. The reason, actually, was to do with Cooke’s laziness. They’d gone into the studio, and it turned out that Cooke hadn’t written a song, and they needed one. The rest of the group were upset with him, and he just told them to hand him a Bible. He started flipping through, skimming to find something, and then he said “I got one”. He told the guitarist to play a couple of chords, and he started singing — and the song that came out, improvised off the top of his head, “Touch the Hem of His Garment”, was perfect just as it was, and the group quickly cut it: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Touch the Hem of His Garment”] Blackwell knew then that Cooke was a very, very special talent, and he and the rest of the people at Specialty became more and more insistent as 1956 went on that Sam Cooke should become a secular solo performer, rather than performing in a gospel group. The Soul Stirrers were only selling in the low tens of thousands — a reasonable amount for a gospel group, but hardly the kind of numbers that would make anyone rich. Meanwhile, gospel-inspired performers were having massive hits with gospel songs with a couple of words changed. There’s an episode of South Park where they make fun of contemporary Christian music, saying you just have to take a normal song and change the word “Baby” to “Jesus”. In the mid-fifties things seemed to be the other way — people were having hits by taking Gospel songs and changing the word “Jesus” to “baby”, or near as damnit. Most famously and blatantly, there was Ray Charles, who did things like take “This Little Light of Mine”: [Excerpt: The Louvin Brothers, “This Little Light of Mine”] and turn it into “This Little Girl of Mine: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, “This Little Girl of Mine”] But there were a number of other acts doing things that weren’t that much less blatant. And so Sam Cooke travelled to New Orleans, to record in Cosimo Matassa’s studio with the same musicians who had been responsible for so many rock and roll hits. Or, rather, Dale Cook did. Sam was still a member of the Soul Stirrers at the time, and while he wanted to make himself into a star, he was also concerned that if he recorded secular music under his own name, he would damage his career as a gospel singer, without necessarily getting a better career to replace it. So the decision was made to put the single out under the name “Dale Cook”, and maintain a small amount of plausible deniability. If necessary, they could say that Dale was Sam’s brother, because it was fairly well known that Sam came from a singing family, and indeed Sam’s brother L.C. (whose name was just the initials L.C.) later went on to have some minor success as a singer himself, in a style very like Sam’s. As his first secular recording, they decided to record a new version of a gospel song that Cooke had recorded with the Soul Stirrers, “Wonderful”: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Wonderful”] One quick rewrite later, and that song became, instead, “Lovable”: [Excerpt: Dale Cook, “Lovable”] Around the time of the Dale Cook recording session, Sam’s brother L.C. went to Memphis, with his own group, where they appeared at the bottom of the bill for a charity Christmas show in aid of impoverished black youth. The lineup of the show was almost entirely black – people like Ray Charles, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, and so on – but Elvis Presley turned up briefly to come out on stage and wave to the crowd and say a few words – the Colonel wouldn’t allow him to perform without getting paid, but did allow him to make an appearance, and he wanted to support the black community in Memphis. Backstage, Elvis was happy to meet all the acts, but when he found out that L.C. was Sam’s brother, he spent a full twenty minutes talking to L.C. about how great Sam was, and how much he admired his singing with the Soul Stirrers. Sam was such a distinctive voice that while the single came out as by “Dale Cook”, the DJs playing it would often introduce it as being by “Dale Sam Cook”, and the Soul Stirrers started to be asked if they were going to sing “Lovable” in their shows. Sam started to have doubts as to whether this move towards a pop style was really a good idea, and remained with the Soul Stirrers for the moment, though it’s noticeable that songs like “Mean Old World” could easily be refigured into being secular songs, and have only a minimal amount of religious content: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Mean Old World”] But barely a week after the session that produced “Mean Old World”, Sam was sending Bumps Blackwell demos of new pop songs he’d written, which he thought Blackwell would be interested in producing. Sam Cooke was going to treat the Soul Stirrers the same way he’d treated the Highway QCs. Cooke flew to LA, to meet with Blackwell and with Clifton White, a musician who had been for a long time the guitarist for the Mills Brothers, but who had recently left the band and started working with Blackwell as a session player. White was very unimpressed with Cooke – he thought that the new song Cooke sang to them, “You Send Me”, was just him repeating the same thing over and over again. Art Rupe helped them whittle the song choices down to four. Rupe had very particular ideas about what made for a commercial record – for example, that a record had to be exactly two minutes and twenty seconds long – and the final choices for the session were made with Rupe’s criteria in mind. The songs chosen were “Summertime”, “You Send Me”, another song Sam had written called “You Were Made For Me”, and “Things You Do to Me”, which was written by a young man Bumps Blackwell had just taken on as his assistant, named Sonny Bono. The recording session should have been completely straightforward. Blackwell supervised it, and while the session was in LA, almost everyone there was a veteran New Orleans player – along with Clif White on guitar there was René Hall, a guitarist from New Orleans who had recently quit Billy Ward and the Dominoes, and acted as instrumental arranger; Harold Battiste, a New Orleans saxophone player who Bumps had taken under his wing, and who wasn’t playing on the session but ended up writing the vocal arrangements for the backing singers; Earl Palmer, who had just moved to LA from New Orleans and was starting to make a name for himself as a session player there after his years of playing with Little Richard, Lloyd Price, and Fats Domino in Cosimo Matassa’s studio, and Ted Brinson, the only LA native, on bass — Brinson was a regular player on Specialty sessions, and also had connections with almost every LA R&B act, to the extent that it was his garage that “Earth Angel” by the Penguins had been recorded in. And on backing vocals were the Lee Gotch singers, a white vocal group who were among the most in-demand vocalists in LA. So this should have been a straightforward session, and it was, until Art Rupe turned up just after they’d recorded “You Send Me”: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “You Send Me”] Rupe was horrified that Bumps and Battiste had put white backing vocalists behind Cooke’s vocals. They were, in Rupe’s view, trying to make Sam Cooke sound like Billy Ward and his Dominoes at best, and like a symphony orchestra at worst. The Billy Ward reference was because René Hall had recently arranged a version of “Stardust” for the Dominoes: [Excerpt: Billy Ward and the Dominoes, “Stardust”] And the new version of “Summertime” had some of the same feel: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “Summertime”] If Sam Cooke was going to record for Specialty, he wasn’t going to have *white* vocalists backing him. Rupe wanted black music, not something trying to be white — and the fact that he, a white man, was telling a room full of black musicians what counted as black music, was not lost on Bumps Blackwell. Even worse than the whiteness of the singers, though, was that some of them were women. Rupe and Blackwell had already had one massive falling-out, over “Rip it Up” by Little Richard. When they’d agreed to record that, Blackwell had worked out an arrangement beforehand that Rupe was happy with — one that was based around piano triplets. But then, when he’d been on the plane to the session, Blackwell had hit upon another idea — to base the song around a particular drum pattern: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “Rip it Up”] Rupe had nearly fired Blackwell over that, and only relented when the record became a massive hit. Now that instead of putting a male black gospel group behind Cooke, as agreed, Blackwell had disobeyed him a second time and put white vocalists, including women, behind him, Rupe decided it was the last straw. Blackwell had to go. He was also convinced that Sam Cooke was only after money, because once Cooke discovered that his solo contract only paid him a third of the royalties that the Soul Stirrers had been getting as a group, he started pushing for a greater share of the money. Rupe didn’t like that kind of greed from his artists — why *should* he pay the artist more than one cent per record sold? But he still owed Blackwell a great deal of money. They eventually came to an agreement — Blackwell would leave Specialty, and take Sam Cooke, and Cooke’s existing recordings with him, since he was so convinced that they were going to be a hit. Rupe would keep the publishing rights to any songs Sam wrote, and would have an option on eight further Sam Cooke recordings in the future, but Cooke and Blackwell were free to take “You Send Me”, “Summertime”, and the rest to a new label that wanted them for its first release, Keen. While they waited around for Keen to get itself set up, Sam made himself firmly a part of the Central Avenue music scene, hanging around with Gaynel Hodge, Jesse Belvin, Dootsie Williams, Googie Rene, John Dolphin, and everyone else who was part of the LA R&B community. Meanwhile, the Soul Stirrers got Johnnie Taylor, the man who had replaced Sam in the Highway QCs, to replace him in the Stirrers. While Sam was out of the group, for the next few years he would be regularly involved with them, helping them out in recording sessions, producing them, and more. When the single came out, everyone thought that “Summertime” would be the hit, but “You Send Me” quickly found itself all over the airwaves and became massive: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “You Send Me”] Several cover versions came out almost immediately. Sam and Bumps didn’t mind the versions by Jesse Belvin: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “You Send Me”] Or Cornell Gunter: [Excerpt: Cornell Gunter, “You Send Me”] They were friends and colleagues, and good luck to them if they had a hit with the song — and anyway, they knew that Sam’s version was better. What they did object to was the white cover version by Teresa Brewer: [Excerpt: Teresa Brewer, “You Send Me”] Even though her version was less of a soundalike than the other LA R&B versions, it was more offensive to them — she was even copying Sam’s “whoa-oh”s. She was nothing more than a thief, Blackwell argued — and her version was charting, and made the top ten. Fortunately for them, Sam’s version went to number one, on both the R&B and pop charts, despite a catastrophic appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, which accidentally cut him off half way through a song. But there was still trouble with Art Rupe. Sam was still signed to Rupe’s company as a songwriter, and so he’d put “You Send Me” in the name of his brother L.C., so Rupe wouldn’t get any royalties. Rupe started legal action against him, and meanwhile, he took a demo Sam had recorded, “I’ll Come Running Back To You”, and got René Hall and the Lee Gotch singers, the very people whose work on “You Send Me” and “Summertime” he’d despised so much, to record overdubs to make it sound as much like “You Send Me” as possible: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “I’ll Come Running Back To You”] And in retaliation for *that* being released, Bumps Blackwell took a song that he’d recorded months earlier with Little Richard, but which still hadn’t been released, and got the Specialty duo Don and Dewey to provide instrumental backing for a vocal group called the Valiants, and put it out on Keen: [Excerpt: The Valiants, “Good Golly Miss Molly”] Specialty had to rush-release Little Richard’s version to make sure it became the hit — a blow for them, given that they were trying to dripfeed the public what few Little Richard recordings they had left. As 1957 drew to a close, Sam Cooke was on top of the world. But the seeds of his downfall were already in place. He was upsetting all the right people with his desire to have control of his own career, but he was also hurting a lot of other people along the way — people who had helped him, like the Highway QCs and the Soul Stirrers, and especially women. He was about to divorce his first wife, and he had fathered a string of children with different women, all of whom he refused to acknowledge or support. He was taking his father’s maxims about only looking after yourself, and applying them to every aspect of life, with no regard to who it hurt. But such was his talent and charm, that even the people he hurt ended up defending him. Over the next couple of times we see Sam Cooke, we’ll see him rising to ever greater artistic heights, but we’ll also see the damage he caused to himself and to others. Because the story of Sam Cooke gets very, very unpleasant.

Episode sixty of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Little Darlin'” by The Gladiolas. Also, an announcement — the book version of the first fifty episodes is now available for purchase. See the show notes, or the previous mini-episode announcing this, for details.  —-more—- Resources The Mixcloud is slightly delayed this week. I’ll update the post tonight with the link. My main source for this episode is Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick. Like all Guralnick’s work, it’s an essential book if you’re even slightly interested in the subject. This is the best compilation of Sam Cooke’s music for the beginner. A note on spelling: Sam Cooke was born Sam Cook, the rest of his family all kept the surname Cook, and he only added the “e” from the release of “You Send Me”, so for almost all the time covered in this episode he was Cook. I didn’t feel the need to mention this in the podcast, as the two names are pronounced identically. I’ve spelled him as Cooke and everyone else as Cook throughout. Book of the Podcast Remember that there’s a book available based on the first fifty episodes of the podcast. You can buy it at this link, which will take you to your preferred online bookstore. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript We’ve talked before about how the music that became known as soul had its roots in gospel music, but today we’re going to have a look at the first big star of that music to get his start as a professional gospel singer, rather than as a rhythm and blues singer who included a little bit of gospel feeling. Sam Cooke was, in many ways, the most important black musician of the late fifties and early sixties, and without him it’s doubtful whether we would have the genre of soul as we know it today. But when he started out, he was someone who worked exclusively in the gospel field, and within that field he was something of a superstar. He was also someone who, as admirable as he was as a singer, was far less admirable in his behaviour towards other people, especially the women in his life, and while that’s something that will come up more in future episodes, it’s worth noting here. Cooke started out as a teenager in the 1940s, performing in gospel groups around Chicago, which as we’ve talked about before was the city where a whole new form of gospel music was being created at that point, spearheaded by Thomas Dorsey. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were all living and performing in the city during young Sam’s formative years, but the biggest influence on him was a group called the Soul Stirrers. The Soul Stirrers had started out in 1926 as a group in what was called the “jubilee” style — the style that black singers of spiritual music sang in the period before Thomas Dorsey revolutionised gospel music. There are no recordings of the Soul Stirrers in that style, but this is probably the most famous jubilee recording: [Excerpt: The Fisk Jubilee Singers, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”] But as Thomas Dorsey and the musicians around him started to create the music we now think of as gospel, the Soul Stirrers switched styles, and became one of the first — and best — gospel quartets in the new style. In the late forties, the Soul Stirrers signed to Specialty Records, one of the first acts to sign to the label, and recorded a series of classic singles led by R.H. Harris, who was regarded by many as the greatest gospel singer of the age: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers feat. R.H. Harris, “In That Awful Hour”] Sam Cooke was one of seven children, the son of Reverend Charles Cook and his wife Annie Mae, and from a very early age the Reverend Cook had been training them as singers — five of them would perform regularly around churches in the area, under the name The Singing Children. Young Sam was taught religion by his father, but he was also taught that there was no prohibition in the Bible against worldly success. Indeed the Reverend Cook taught him two things that would matter in his life even more than his religion would. The first was that whatever it is you do in life, you try to do it the best you can — you never do anything by halves, and if a thing’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly. And the second was that you do whatever is necessary to give yourself the best possible life, and don’t worry about who you step on to do it. After spending some time with his family group, Cooke joined a newly-formed gospel group, who had heard him singing the Ink Spots song “If I Didn’t Care” to a girl. That group was called the Highway QCs, and a version of the group still exists to this day. Sam Cooke only stayed with them a couple of years, and never recorded with them, but they replaced him with a soundalike singer, Johnnie Taylor, and listening to Taylor’s recordings with the group you can get some idea of what they sounded like when Sam was a member: [Excerpt: Johnnie Taylor and the Highway QCs, “I Dreamed That Heaven Was Like This”] The rest of the group were decent singers, but Sam Cooke was absolutely unquestionably the star of the Highway QCs. Creadell Copeland, one of the group’s members, later said “All we had to do was stand behind Sam. Our claim to fame was that Sam’s voice was so captivating we didn’t have to do anything else.” The group didn’t make a huge amount of money, and they kept talking about going in a pop direction, rather than just singing gospel songs, and Sam was certainly singing a lot of secular music in his own time — he loved gospel music as much as anyone, but he was also learning from people like Gene Autry or Bill Kenny of the Ink Spots, and he was slowly developing into a singer who could do absolutely anything with his voice. But his biggest influence was still R.H. Harris of the Soul Stirrers, who was the most important person in the gospel quartet field. This wasn’t just because he was the most talented of all the quartet singers — though he was, and that was certainly part of it — but because he was the joint leader of a movement to professionalise the gospel quartet movement. (Just as a quick explanation — in both black gospel, and in the white gospel music euphemistically called “Southern Gospel”, the term “quartet” is used for groups which might have five, six, or even more people in them. I’ll generally refer to all of these as “groups”, because I’m not from the gospel world, but I’ll use the term “quartet” when talking about things like the National Quartet Convention, and I may slip between the two interchangeably at times. Just know that if I mention quartets, I’m not just talking about groups with exactly four people in them). Harris worked with a less well known singer called Abraham Battle, and with Charlie Bridges, of another popular group, the Famous Blue Jays: [Excerpt: The Famous Blue Jay Singers, “Praising Jesus Evermore”] Together they founded the National Quartet Convention, which existed to try to take all the young gospel quartets who were springing up all over the place, and most of whom had casual attitudes to their music and their onstage appearance, and teach them how to comport themselves in a manner that the organisation’s leaders considered appropriate for a gospel singer. The Highway QCs joined the Convention, of course, and they considered themselves to be disciples, in a sense, of the Soul Stirrers, who they simultaneously considered to be their mentors and thought were jealous of the QCs. It was normal at the time for gospel groups to turn up at each other’s shows, and if they were popular enough they would be invited up to sing, and sometimes even take over the show. When the Highway QCs turned up at Soul Stirrers shows, though, the Soul Stirrers would act as if they didn’t know them, and would only invite them on to the stage if the audience absolutely insisted, and would then limit their performance to a single song. From the Highway QCs’ point of view, the only possible explanation was that the Soul Stirrers were terrified of the competition. A more likely explanation is probably that they were just more interested in putting on their own show than in giving space to some young kids who thought they were the next big thing. On the other hand, to all the younger kids around Chicago, the Highway QCs were clearly the group to beat — and people like a young singer named Lou Rawls looked up to them as something to aspire to. And soon the QCs found themselves being mentored by R.B. Robinson, one of the Soul Stirrers. Robinson would train them, and help them get better gigs, and the QCs became convinced that they were headed for the big time. But it turned out that behind the scenes, there had been trouble in the Soul Stirrers. Harris had, more and more, come to think of himself as the real star of the group, and quit to go solo. It had looked likely for a while that he would do so, and when Robinson had appeared to be mentoring the QCs, what he was actually doing was training their lead singer, so that when R.H. Harris eventually quit, they would have someone to take his place. The other Highway QCs were heartbroken, but Sam took the advice of his father, the Reverend Cook, who told him “Anytime you can make a step higher, you go higher. Don’t worry about the other fellow. You hold up for other folks, and they’ll take advantage of you.” And so, in March 1951, Sam Cooke went into the studio with the Soul Stirrers for his first ever recording session, three months after joining the group. Art Rupe, the head of Specialty Records, was not at all impressed that the group had got a new singer without telling him. Rupe had to admit that Cooke could sing, but his performance on the first few songs, while impressive, was no R.H. Harris: [Excerpt: the Soul Stirrers, “Come, Let Us Go Back to God”] But towards the end of the session, the Soul Stirrers insisted that they should record “Jesus Gave Me Water”, a song that had always been a highlight of the Highway QCs’ set. Rupe thought that this was ridiculous — the Pilgrim Travellers had just had a hit with the song, on Specialty, not six months earlier. What could Specialty possibly do with another version of the song so soon afterwards? But the group insisted, and the result was absolutely majestic: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers, “Jesus Gave Me Water”] Rupe lost his misgivings, both about the song and about the singer — that was clearly going to be the group’s next single. The group themselves were still not completely sure about Cooke as their singer — he was younger than the rest of them, and he didn’t have Harris’ assurance and professionalism, yet. But they knew they had something with that song, which was released with “Peace in the Valley” on the B-side. That song had been written by Thomas Dorsey fourteen years earlier, but this was the first time it had been released on a record, at least by anyone of any prominence. “Jesus Gave Me Water” was a hit, but the follow-ups were less successful, and meanwhile Art Rupe was starting to see the commercial potential in black styles of music other than gospel. Even though Rupe loved gospel music, he realised when “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” became the biggest hit Specialty had ever had to that point that maybe he should refocus the label away from gospel and towards more secular styles of music. “Jesus Gave Me Water” had consolidated Sam as the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers, but while he was singing gospel, he wasn’t living a very godly life. He got married in 1953, but he’d already had at least one child with another woman, who he left with the baby, and he was sleeping around constantly while on the road, and more than once the women involved became pregnant. But Cooke treated women the same way he treated the groups he was in – use them for as long as they’ve got something you want, and then immediately cast them aside once it became inconvenient. For the next few years, the Soul Stirrers would have one recording session every year, and the group continued touring, but they didn’t have any breakout success, even as other Specialty acts like Lloyd Price, Jesse Belvin, and Guitar Slim were all selling hand over fist. The Soul Stirrers were more popular as a live act than as a recording act, and hearing the live recording of them that Bumps Blackwell produced in 1955, it’s easy to see why: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Nearer to Thee”] Bumps Blackwell was convinced that Cooke needed to go solo and become a pop singer, and he was more convinced than ever when he produced the Soul Stirrers in the studio for the first time. The reason, actually, was to do with Cooke’s laziness. They’d gone into the studio, and it turned out that Cooke hadn’t written a song, and they needed one. The rest of the group were upset with him, and he just told them to hand him a Bible. He started flipping through, skimming to find something, and then he said “I got one”. He told the guitarist to play a couple of chords, and he started singing — and the song that came out, improvised off the top of his head, “Touch the Hem of His Garment”, was perfect just as it was, and the group quickly cut it: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Touch the Hem of His Garment”] Blackwell knew then that Cooke was a very, very special talent, and he and the rest of the people at Specialty became more and more insistent as 1956 went on that Sam Cooke should become a secular solo performer, rather than performing in a gospel group. The Soul Stirrers were only selling in the low tens of thousands — a reasonable amount for a gospel group, but hardly the kind of numbers that would make anyone rich. Meanwhile, gospel-inspired performers were having massive hits with gospel songs with a couple of words changed. There’s an episode of South Park where they make fun of contemporary Christian music, saying you just have to take a normal song and change the word “Baby” to “Jesus”. In the mid-fifties things seemed to be the other way — people were having hits by taking Gospel songs and changing the word “Jesus” to “baby”, or near as damnit. Most famously and blatantly, there was Ray Charles, who did things like take “This Little Light of Mine”: [Excerpt: The Louvin Brothers, “This Little Light of Mine”] and turn it into “This Little Girl of Mine: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, “This Little Girl of Mine”] But there were a number of other acts doing things that weren’t that much less blatant. And so Sam Cooke travelled to New Orleans, to record in Cosimo Matassa’s studio with the same musicians who had been responsible for so many rock and roll hits. Or, rather, Dale Cook did. Sam was still a member of the Soul Stirrers at the time, and while he wanted to make himself into a star, he was also concerned that if he recorded secular music under his own name, he would damage his career as a gospel singer, without necessarily getting a better career to replace it. So the decision was made to put the single out under the name “Dale Cook”, and maintain a small amount of plausible deniability. If necessary, they could say that Dale was Sam’s brother, because it was fairly well known that Sam came from a singing family, and indeed Sam’s brother L.C. (whose name was just the initials L.C.) later went on to have some minor success as a singer himself, in a style very like Sam’s. As his first secular recording, they decided to record a new version of a gospel song that Cooke had recorded with the Soul Stirrers, “Wonderful”: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Wonderful”] One quick rewrite later, and that song became, instead, “Lovable”: [Excerpt: Dale Cook, “Lovable”] Around the time of the Dale Cook recording session, Sam’s brother L.C. went to Memphis, with his own group, where they appeared at the bottom of the bill for a charity Christmas show in aid of impoverished black youth. The lineup of the show was almost entirely black – people like Ray Charles, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, and so on – but Elvis Presley turned up briefly to come out on stage and wave to the crowd and say a few words – the Colonel wouldn’t allow him to perform without getting paid, but did allow him to make an appearance, and he wanted to support the black community in Memphis. Backstage, Elvis was happy to meet all the acts, but when he found out that L.C. was Sam’s brother, he spent a full twenty minutes talking to L.C. about how great Sam was, and how much he admired his singing with the Soul Stirrers. Sam was such a distinctive voice that while the single came out as by “Dale Cook”, the DJs playing it would often introduce it as being by “Dale Sam Cook”, and the Soul Stirrers started to be asked if they were going to sing “Lovable” in their shows. Sam started to have doubts as to whether this move towards a pop style was really a good idea, and remained with the Soul Stirrers for the moment, though it’s noticeable that songs like “Mean Old World” could easily be refigured into being secular songs, and have only a minimal amount of religious content: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, “Mean Old World”] But barely a week after the session that produced “Mean Old World”, Sam was sending Bumps Blackwell demos of new pop songs he’d written, which he thought Blackwell would be interested in producing. Sam Cooke was going to treat the Soul Stirrers the same way he’d treated the Highway QCs. Cooke flew to LA, to meet with Blackwell and with Clifton White, a musician who had been for a long time the guitarist for the Mills Brothers, but who had recently left the band and started working with Blackwell as a session player. White was very unimpressed with Cooke – he thought that the new song Cooke sang to them, “You Send Me”, was just him repeating the same thing over and over again. Art Rupe helped them whittle the song choices down to four. Rupe had very particular ideas about what made for a commercial record – for example, that a record had to be exactly two minutes and twenty seconds long – and the final choices for the session were made with Rupe’s criteria in mind. The songs chosen were “Summertime”, “You Send Me”, another song Sam had written called “You Were Made For Me”, and “Things You Do to Me”, which was written by a young man Bumps Blackwell had just taken on as his assistant, named Sonny Bono. The recording session should have been completely straightforward. Blackwell supervised it, and while the session was in LA, almost everyone there was a veteran New Orleans player – along with Clif White on guitar there was René Hall, a guitarist from New Orleans who had recently quit Billy Ward and the Dominoes, and acted as instrumental arranger; Harold Battiste, a New Orleans saxophone player who Bumps had taken under his wing, and who wasn’t playing on the session but ended up writing the vocal arrangements for the backing singers; Earl Palmer, who had just moved to LA from New Orleans and was starting to make a name for himself as a session player there after his years of playing with Little Richard, Lloyd Price, and Fats Domino in Cosimo Matassa’s studio, and Ted Brinson, the only LA native, on bass — Brinson was a regular player on Specialty sessions, and also had connections with almost every LA R&B act, to the extent that it was his garage that “Earth Angel” by the Penguins had been recorded in. And on backing vocals were the Lee Gotch singers, a white vocal group who were among the most in-demand vocalists in LA. So this should have been a straightforward session, and it was, until Art Rupe turned up just after they’d recorded “You Send Me”: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “You Send Me”] Rupe was horrified that Bumps and Battiste had put white backing vocalists behind Cooke’s vocals. They were, in Rupe’s view, trying to make Sam Cooke sound like Billy Ward and his Dominoes at best, and like a symphony orchestra at worst. The Billy Ward reference was because René Hall had recently arranged a version of “Stardust” for the Dominoes: [Excerpt: Billy Ward and the Dominoes, “Stardust”] And the new version of “Summertime” had some of the same feel: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “Summertime”] If Sam Cooke was going to record for Specialty, he wasn’t going to have *white* vocalists backing him. Rupe wanted black music, not something trying to be white — and the fact that he, a white man, was telling a room full of black musicians what counted as black music, was not lost on Bumps Blackwell. Even worse than the whiteness of the singers, though, was that some of them were women. Rupe and Blackwell had already had one massive falling-out, over “Rip it Up” by Little Richard. When they’d agreed to record that, Blackwell had worked out an arrangement beforehand that Rupe was happy with — one that was based around piano triplets. But then, when he’d been on the plane to the session, Blackwell had hit upon another idea — to base the song around a particular drum pattern: [Excerpt: Little Richard, “Rip it Up”] Rupe had nearly fired Blackwell over that, and only relented when the record became a massive hit. Now that instead of putting a male black gospel group behind Cooke, as agreed, Blackwell had disobeyed him a second time and put white vocalists, including women, behind him, Rupe decided it was the last straw. Blackwell had to go. He was also convinced that Sam Cooke was only after money, because once Cooke discovered that his solo contract only paid him a third of the royalties that the Soul Stirrers had been getting as a group, he started pushing for a greater share of the money. Rupe didn’t like that kind of greed from his artists — why *should* he pay the artist more than one cent per record sold? But he still owed Blackwell a great deal of money. They eventually came to an agreement — Blackwell would leave Specialty, and take Sam Cooke, and Cooke’s existing recordings with him, since he was so convinced that they were going to be a hit. Rupe would keep the publishing rights to any songs Sam wrote, and would have an option on eight further Sam Cooke recordings in the future, but Cooke and Blackwell were free to take “You Send Me”, “Summertime”, and the rest to a new label that wanted them for its first release, Keen. While they waited around for Keen to get itself set up, Sam made himself firmly a part of the Central Avenue music scene, hanging around with Gaynel Hodge, Jesse Belvin, Dootsie Williams, Googie Rene, John Dolphin, and everyone else who was part of the LA R&B community. Meanwhile, the Soul Stirrers got Johnnie Taylor, the man who had replaced Sam in the Highway QCs, to replace him in the Stirrers. While Sam was out of the group, for the next few years he would be regularly involved with them, helping them out in recording sessions, producing them, and more. When the single came out, everyone thought that “Summertime” would be the hit, but “You Send Me” quickly found itself all over the airwaves and became massive: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “You Send Me”] Several cover versions came out almost immediately. Sam and Bumps didn’t mind the versions by Jesse Belvin: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “You Send Me”] Or Cornell Gunter: [Excerpt: Cornell Gunter, “You Send Me”] They were friends and colleagues, and good luck to them if they had a hit with the song — and anyway, they knew that Sam’s version was better. What they did object to was the white cover version by Teresa Brewer: [Excerpt: Teresa Brewer, “You Send Me”] Even though her version was less of a soundalike than the other LA R&B versions, it was more offensive to them — she was even copying Sam’s “whoa-oh”s. She was nothing more than a thief, Blackwell argued — and her version was charting, and made the top ten. Fortunately for them, Sam’s version went to number one, on both the R&B and pop charts, despite a catastrophic appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, which accidentally cut him off half way through a song. But there was still trouble with Art Rupe. Sam was still signed to Rupe’s company as a songwriter, and so he’d put “You Send Me” in the name of his brother L.C., so Rupe wouldn’t get any royalties. Rupe started legal action against him, and meanwhile, he took a demo Sam had recorded, “I’ll Come Running Back To You”, and got René Hall and the Lee Gotch singers, the very people whose work on “You Send Me” and “Summertime” he’d despised so much, to record overdubs to make it sound as much like “You Send Me” as possible: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “I’ll Come Running Back To You”] And in retaliation for *that* being released, Bumps Blackwell took a song that he’d recorded months earlier with Little Richard, but which still hadn’t been released, and got the Specialty duo Don and Dewey to provide instrumental backing for a vocal group called the Valiants, and put it out on Keen: [Excerpt: The Valiants, “Good Golly Miss Molly”] Specialty had to rush-release Little Richard’s version to make sure it became the hit — a blow for them, given that they were trying to dripfeed the public what few Little Richard recordings they had left. As 1957 drew to a close, Sam Cooke was on top of the world. But the seeds of his downfall were already in place. He was upsetting all the right people with his desire to have control of his own career, but he was also hurting a lot of other people along the way — people who had helped him, like the Highway QCs and the Soul Stirrers, and especially women. He was about to divorce his first wife, and he had fathered a string of children with different women, all of whom he refused to acknowledge or support. He was taking his father’s maxims about only looking after yourself, and applying them to every aspect of life, with no regard to who it hurt. But such was his talent and charm, that even the people he hurt ended up defending him. Over the next couple of times we see Sam Cooke, we’ll see him rising to ever greater artistic heights, but we’ll also see the damage he caused to himself and to others. Because the story of Sam Cooke gets very, very unpleasant.

Episode sixty of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Little Darlin'" by The Gladiolas. Also, an announcement -- the book version of the first fifty episodes is now available for purchase. See the show notes, or the previous mini-episode announcing this, for details.  ----more---- Resources The Mixcloud is slightly delayed this week. I'll update the post tonight with the link. My main source for this episode is Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick. Like all Guralnick's work, it's an essential book if you're even slightly interested in the subject. This is the best compilation of Sam Cooke's music for the beginner. A note on spelling: Sam Cooke was born Sam Cook, the rest of his family all kept the surname Cook, and he only added the "e" from the release of "You Send Me", so for almost all the time covered in this episode he was Cook. I didn't feel the need to mention this in the podcast, as the two names are pronounced identically. I've spelled him as Cooke and everyone else as Cook throughout. Book of the Podcast Remember that there's a book available based on the first fifty episodes of the podcast. You can buy it at this link, which will take you to your preferred online bookstore. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript We've talked before about how the music that became known as soul had its roots in gospel music, but today we're going to have a look at the first big star of that music to get his start as a professional gospel singer, rather than as a rhythm and blues singer who included a little bit of gospel feeling. Sam Cooke was, in many ways, the most important black musician of the late fifties and early sixties, and without him it's doubtful whether we would have the genre of soul as we know it today. But when he started out, he was someone who worked exclusively in the gospel field, and within that field he was something of a superstar. He was also someone who, as admirable as he was as a singer, was far less admirable in his behaviour towards other people, especially the women in his life, and while that's something that will come up more in future episodes, it's worth noting here. Cooke started out as a teenager in the 1940s, performing in gospel groups around Chicago, which as we've talked about before was the city where a whole new form of gospel music was being created at that point, spearheaded by Thomas Dorsey. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were all living and performing in the city during young Sam's formative years, but the biggest influence on him was a group called the Soul Stirrers. The Soul Stirrers had started out in 1926 as a group in what was called the "jubilee" style -- the style that black singers of spiritual music sang in the period before Thomas Dorsey revolutionised gospel music. There are no recordings of the Soul Stirrers in that style, but this is probably the most famous jubilee recording: [Excerpt: The Fisk Jubilee Singers, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"] But as Thomas Dorsey and the musicians around him started to create the music we now think of as gospel, the Soul Stirrers switched styles, and became one of the first -- and best -- gospel quartets in the new style. In the late forties, the Soul Stirrers signed to Specialty Records, one of the first acts to sign to the label, and recorded a series of classic singles led by R.H. Harris, who was regarded by many as the greatest gospel singer of the age: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers feat. R.H. Harris, "In That Awful Hour"] Sam Cooke was one of seven children, the son of Reverend Charles Cook and his wife Annie Mae, and from a very early age the Reverend Cook had been training them as singers -- five of them would perform regularly around churches in the area, under the name The Singing Children. Young Sam was taught religion by his father, but he was also taught that there was no prohibition in the Bible against worldly success. Indeed the Reverend Cook taught him two things that would matter in his life even more than his religion would. The first was that whatever it is you do in life, you try to do it the best you can -- you never do anything by halves, and if a thing's worth doing it's worth doing properly. And the second was that you do whatever is necessary to give yourself the best possible life, and don't worry about who you step on to do it. After spending some time with his family group, Cooke joined a newly-formed gospel group, who had heard him singing the Ink Spots song "If I Didn't Care" to a girl. That group was called the Highway QCs, and a version of the group still exists to this day. Sam Cooke only stayed with them a couple of years, and never recorded with them, but they replaced him with a soundalike singer, Johnnie Taylor, and listening to Taylor's recordings with the group you can get some idea of what they sounded like when Sam was a member: [Excerpt: Johnnie Taylor and the Highway QCs, "I Dreamed That Heaven Was Like This"] The rest of the group were decent singers, but Sam Cooke was absolutely unquestionably the star of the Highway QCs. Creadell Copeland, one of the group's members, later said “All we had to do was stand behind Sam. Our claim to fame was that Sam’s voice was so captivating we didn’t have to do anything else.” The group didn't make a huge amount of money, and they kept talking about going in a pop direction, rather than just singing gospel songs, and Sam was certainly singing a lot of secular music in his own time -- he loved gospel music as much as anyone, but he was also learning from people like Gene Autry or Bill Kenny of the Ink Spots, and he was slowly developing into a singer who could do absolutely anything with his voice. But his biggest influence was still R.H. Harris of the Soul Stirrers, who was the most important person in the gospel quartet field. This wasn't just because he was the most talented of all the quartet singers -- though he was, and that was certainly part of it -- but because he was the joint leader of a movement to professionalise the gospel quartet movement. (Just as a quick explanation -- in both black gospel, and in the white gospel music euphemistically called "Southern Gospel", the term "quartet" is used for groups which might have five, six, or even more people in them. I'll generally refer to all of these as "groups", because I'm not from the gospel world, but I'll use the term "quartet" when talking about things like the National Quartet Convention, and I may slip between the two interchangeably at times. Just know that if I mention quartets, I'm not just talking about groups with exactly four people in them). Harris worked with a less well known singer called Abraham Battle, and with Charlie Bridges, of another popular group, the Famous Blue Jays: [Excerpt: The Famous Blue Jay Singers, “Praising Jesus Evermore”] Together they founded the National Quartet Convention, which existed to try to take all the young gospel quartets who were springing up all over the place, and most of whom had casual attitudes to their music and their onstage appearance, and teach them how to comport themselves in a manner that the organisation's leaders considered appropriate for a gospel singer. The Highway QCs joined the Convention, of course, and they considered themselves to be disciples, in a sense, of the Soul Stirrers, who they simultaneously considered to be their mentors and thought were jealous of the QCs. It was normal at the time for gospel groups to turn up at each other's shows, and if they were popular enough they would be invited up to sing, and sometimes even take over the show. When the Highway QCs turned up at Soul Stirrers shows, though, the Soul Stirrers would act as if they didn't know them, and would only invite them on to the stage if the audience absolutely insisted, and would then limit their performance to a single song. From the Highway QCs' point of view, the only possible explanation was that the Soul Stirrers were terrified of the competition. A more likely explanation is probably that they were just more interested in putting on their own show than in giving space to some young kids who thought they were the next big thing. On the other hand, to all the younger kids around Chicago, the Highway QCs were clearly the group to beat -- and people like a young singer named Lou Rawls looked up to them as something to aspire to. And soon the QCs found themselves being mentored by R.B. Robinson, one of the Soul Stirrers. Robinson would train them, and help them get better gigs, and the QCs became convinced that they were headed for the big time. But it turned out that behind the scenes, there had been trouble in the Soul Stirrers. Harris had, more and more, come to think of himself as the real star of the group, and quit to go solo. It had looked likely for a while that he would do so, and when Robinson had appeared to be mentoring the QCs, what he was actually doing was training their lead singer, so that when R.H. Harris eventually quit, they would have someone to take his place. The other Highway QCs were heartbroken, but Sam took the advice of his father, the Reverend Cook, who told him "Anytime you can make a step higher, you go higher. Don’t worry about the other fellow. You hold up for other folks, and they’ll take advantage of you." And so, in March 1951, Sam Cooke went into the studio with the Soul Stirrers for his first ever recording session, three months after joining the group. Art Rupe, the head of Specialty Records, was not at all impressed that the group had got a new singer without telling him. Rupe had to admit that Cooke could sing, but his performance on the first few songs, while impressive, was no R.H. Harris: [Excerpt: the Soul Stirrers, "Come, Let Us Go Back to God"] But towards the end of the session, the Soul Stirrers insisted that they should record "Jesus Gave Me Water", a song that had always been a highlight of the Highway QCs' set. Rupe thought that this was ridiculous -- the Pilgrim Travellers had just had a hit with the song, on Specialty, not six months earlier. What could Specialty possibly do with another version of the song so soon afterwards? But the group insisted, and the result was absolutely majestic: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers, "Jesus Gave Me Water"] Rupe lost his misgivings, both about the song and about the singer -- that was clearly going to be the group's next single. The group themselves were still not completely sure about Cooke as their singer -- he was younger than the rest of them, and he didn't have Harris' assurance and professionalism, yet. But they knew they had something with that song, which was released with "Peace in the Valley" on the B-side. That song had been written by Thomas Dorsey fourteen years earlier, but this was the first time it had been released on a record, at least by anyone of any prominence. "Jesus Gave Me Water" was a hit, but the follow-ups were less successful, and meanwhile Art Rupe was starting to see the commercial potential in black styles of music other than gospel. Even though Rupe loved gospel music, he realised when "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" became the biggest hit Specialty had ever had to that point that maybe he should refocus the label away from gospel and towards more secular styles of music. “Jesus Gave Me Water” had consolidated Sam as the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers, but while he was singing gospel, he wasn't living a very godly life. He got married in 1953, but he'd already had at least one child with another woman, who he left with the baby, and he was sleeping around constantly while on the road, and more than once the women involved became pregnant. But Cooke treated women the same way he treated the groups he was in – use them for as long as they've got something you want, and then immediately cast them aside once it became inconvenient. For the next few years, the Soul Stirrers would have one recording session every year, and the group continued touring, but they didn't have any breakout success, even as other Specialty acts like Lloyd Price, Jesse Belvin, and Guitar Slim were all selling hand over fist. The Soul Stirrers were more popular as a live act than as a recording act, and hearing the live recording of them that Bumps Blackwell produced in 1955, it's easy to see why: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, "Nearer to Thee"] Bumps Blackwell was convinced that Cooke needed to go solo and become a pop singer, and he was more convinced than ever when he produced the Soul Stirrers in the studio for the first time. The reason, actually, was to do with Cooke's laziness. They'd gone into the studio, and it turned out that Cooke hadn't written a song, and they needed one. The rest of the group were upset with him, and he just told them to hand him a Bible. He started flipping through, skimming to find something, and then he said "I got one". He told the guitarist to play a couple of chords, and he started singing -- and the song that came out, improvised off the top of his head, "Touch the Hem of His Garment", was perfect just as it was, and the group quickly cut it: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, "Touch the Hem of His Garment"] Blackwell knew then that Cooke was a very, very special talent, and he and the rest of the people at Specialty became more and more insistent as 1956 went on that Sam Cooke should become a secular solo performer, rather than performing in a gospel group. The Soul Stirrers were only selling in the low tens of thousands -- a reasonable amount for a gospel group, but hardly the kind of numbers that would make anyone rich. Meanwhile, gospel-inspired performers were having massive hits with gospel songs with a couple of words changed. There's an episode of South Park where they make fun of contemporary Christian music, saying you just have to take a normal song and change the word "Baby" to "Jesus". In the mid-fifties things seemed to be the other way -- people were having hits by taking Gospel songs and changing the word "Jesus" to "baby", or near as damnit. Most famously and blatantly, there was Ray Charles, who did things like take "This Little Light of Mine": [Excerpt: The Louvin Brothers, "This Little Light of Mine"] and turn it into "This Little Girl of Mine: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, "This Little Girl of Mine"] But there were a number of other acts doing things that weren't that much less blatant. And so Sam Cooke travelled to New Orleans, to record in Cosimo Matassa's studio with the same musicians who had been responsible for so many rock and roll hits. Or, rather, Dale Cook did. Sam was still a member of the Soul Stirrers at the time, and while he wanted to make himself into a star, he was also concerned that if he recorded secular music under his own name, he would damage his career as a gospel singer, without necessarily getting a better career to replace it. So the decision was made to put the single out under the name "Dale Cook", and maintain a small amount of plausible deniability. If necessary, they could say that Dale was Sam's brother, because it was fairly well known that Sam came from a singing family, and indeed Sam's brother L.C. (whose name was just the initials L.C.) later went on to have some minor success as a singer himself, in a style very like Sam's. As his first secular recording, they decided to record a new version of a gospel song that Cooke had recorded with the Soul Stirrers, "Wonderful": [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, "Wonderful"] One quick rewrite later, and that song became, instead, "Lovable": [Excerpt: Dale Cook, "Lovable"] Around the time of the Dale Cook recording session, Sam's brother L.C. went to Memphis, with his own group, where they appeared at the bottom of the bill for a charity Christmas show in aid of impoverished black youth. The lineup of the show was almost entirely black – people like Ray Charles, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, and so on – but Elvis Presley turned up briefly to come out on stage and wave to the crowd and say a few words – the Colonel wouldn't allow him to perform without getting paid, but did allow him to make an appearance, and he wanted to support the black community in Memphis. Backstage, Elvis was happy to meet all the acts, but when he found out that L.C. was Sam's brother, he spent a full twenty minutes talking to L.C. about how great Sam was, and how much he admired his singing with the Soul Stirrers. Sam was such a distinctive voice that while the single came out as by "Dale Cook", the DJs playing it would often introduce it as being by "Dale Sam Cook", and the Soul Stirrers started to be asked if they were going to sing "Lovable" in their shows. Sam started to have doubts as to whether this move towards a pop style was really a good idea, and remained with the Soul Stirrers for the moment, though it's noticeable that songs like "Mean Old World" could easily be refigured into being secular songs, and have only a minimal amount of religious content: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, "Mean Old World"] But barely a week after the session that produced “Mean Old World”, Sam was sending Bumps Blackwell demos of new pop songs he'd written, which he thought Blackwell would be interested in producing. Sam Cooke was going to treat the Soul Stirrers the same way he'd treated the Highway QCs. Cooke flew to LA, to meet with Blackwell and with Clifton White, a musician who had been for a long time the guitarist for the Mills Brothers, but who had recently left the band and started working with Blackwell as a session player. White was very unimpressed with Cooke – he thought that the new song Cooke sang to them, "You Send Me", was just him repeating the same thing over and over again. Art Rupe helped them whittle the song choices down to four. Rupe had very particular ideas about what made for a commercial record – for example, that a record had to be exactly two minutes and twenty seconds long – and the final choices for the session were made with Rupe's criteria in mind. The songs chosen were "Summertime", "You Send Me", another song Sam had written called "You Were Made For Me", and "Things You Do to Me", which was written by a young man Bumps Blackwell had just taken on as his assistant, named Sonny Bono. The recording session should have been completely straightforward. Blackwell supervised it, and while the session was in LA, almost everyone there was a veteran New Orleans player – along with Clif White on guitar there was René Hall, a guitarist from New Orleans who had recently quit Billy Ward and the Dominoes, and acted as instrumental arranger; Harold Battiste, a New Orleans saxophone player who Bumps had taken under his wing, and who wasn't playing on the session but ended up writing the vocal arrangements for the backing singers; Earl Palmer, who had just moved to LA from New Orleans and was starting to make a name for himself as a session player there after his years of playing with Little Richard, Lloyd Price, and Fats Domino in Cosimo Matassa's studio, and Ted Brinson, the only LA native, on bass -- Brinson was a regular player on Specialty sessions, and also had connections with almost every LA R&B act, to the extent that it was his garage that "Earth Angel" by the Penguins had been recorded in. And on backing vocals were the Lee Gotch singers, a white vocal group who were among the most in-demand vocalists in LA. So this should have been a straightforward session, and it was, until Art Rupe turned up just after they'd recorded "You Send Me": [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "You Send Me"] Rupe was horrified that Bumps and Battiste had put white backing vocalists behind Cooke's vocals. They were, in Rupe's view, trying to make Sam Cooke sound like Billy Ward and his Dominoes at best, and like a symphony orchestra at worst. The Billy Ward reference was because René Hall had recently arranged a version of "Stardust" for the Dominoes: [Excerpt: Billy Ward and the Dominoes, "Stardust"] And the new version of "Summertime" had some of the same feel: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "Summertime"] If Sam Cooke was going to record for Specialty, he wasn't going to have *white* vocalists backing him. Rupe wanted black music, not something trying to be white -- and the fact that he, a white man, was telling a room full of black musicians what counted as black music, was not lost on Bumps Blackwell. Even worse than the whiteness of the singers, though, was that some of them were women. Rupe and Blackwell had already had one massive falling-out, over "Rip it Up" by Little Richard. When they'd agreed to record that, Blackwell had worked out an arrangement beforehand that Rupe was happy with -- one that was based around piano triplets. But then, when he'd been on the plane to the session, Blackwell had hit upon another idea -- to base the song around a particular drum pattern: [Excerpt: Little Richard, "Rip it Up"] Rupe had nearly fired Blackwell over that, and only relented when the record became a massive hit. Now that instead of putting a male black gospel group behind Cooke, as agreed, Blackwell had disobeyed him a second time and put white vocalists, including women, behind him, Rupe decided it was the last straw. Blackwell had to go. He was also convinced that Sam Cooke was only after money, because once Cooke discovered that his solo contract only paid him a third of the royalties that the Soul Stirrers had been getting as a group, he started pushing for a greater share of the money. Rupe didn't like that kind of greed from his artists -- why *should* he pay the artist more than one cent per record sold? But he still owed Blackwell a great deal of money. They eventually came to an agreement -- Blackwell would leave Specialty, and take Sam Cooke, and Cooke's existing recordings with him, since he was so convinced that they were going to be a hit. Rupe would keep the publishing rights to any songs Sam wrote, and would have an option on eight further Sam Cooke recordings in the future, but Cooke and Blackwell were free to take "You Send Me", "Summertime", and the rest to a new label that wanted them for its first release, Keen. While they waited around for Keen to get itself set up, Sam made himself firmly a part of the Central Avenue music scene, hanging around with Gaynel Hodge, Jesse Belvin, Dootsie Williams, Googie Rene, John Dolphin, and everyone else who was part of the LA R&B community. Meanwhile, the Soul Stirrers got Johnnie Taylor, the man who had replaced Sam in the Highway QCs, to replace him in the Stirrers. While Sam was out of the group, for the next few years he would be regularly involved with them, helping them out in recording sessions, producing them, and more. When the single came out, everyone thought that "Summertime" would be the hit, but "You Send Me" quickly found itself all over the airwaves and became massive: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "You Send Me"] Several cover versions came out almost immediately. Sam and Bumps didn't mind the versions by Jesse Belvin: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, "You Send Me"] Or Cornell Gunter: [Excerpt: Cornell Gunter, "You Send Me"] They were friends and colleagues, and good luck to them if they had a hit with the song -- and anyway, they knew that Sam's version was better. What they did object to was the white cover version by Teresa Brewer: [Excerpt: Teresa Brewer, "You Send Me"] Even though her version was less of a soundalike than the other LA R&B versions, it was more offensive to them -- she was even copying Sam's "whoa-oh"s. She was nothing more than a thief, Blackwell argued -- and her version was charting, and made the top ten. Fortunately for them, Sam's version went to number one, on both the R&B and pop charts, despite a catastrophic appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, which accidentally cut him off half way through a song. But there was still trouble with Art Rupe. Sam was still signed to Rupe's company as a songwriter, and so he'd put "You Send Me" in the name of his brother L.C., so Rupe wouldn't get any royalties. Rupe started legal action against him, and meanwhile, he took a demo Sam had recorded, "I'll Come Running Back To You", and got René Hall and the Lee Gotch singers, the very people whose work on "You Send Me" and "Summertime" he'd despised so much, to record overdubs to make it sound as much like "You Send Me" as possible: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "I'll Come Running Back To You"] And in retaliation for *that* being released, Bumps Blackwell took a song that he'd recorded months earlier with Little Richard, but which still hadn't been released, and got the Specialty duo Don and Dewey to provide instrumental backing for a vocal group called the Valiants, and put it out on Keen: [Excerpt: The Valiants, "Good Golly Miss Molly"] Specialty had to rush-release Little Richard's version to make sure it became the hit -- a blow for them, given that they were trying to dripfeed the public what few Little Richard recordings they had left. As 1957 drew to a close, Sam Cooke was on top of the world. But the seeds of his downfall were already in place. He was upsetting all the right people with his desire to have control of his own career, but he was also hurting a lot of other people along the way -- people who had helped him, like the Highway QCs and the Soul Stirrers, and especially women. He was about to divorce his first wife, and he had fathered a string of children with different women, all of whom he refused to acknowledge or support. He was taking his father's maxims about only looking after yourself, and applying them to every aspect of life, with no regard to who it hurt. But such was his talent and charm, that even the people he hurt ended up defending him. Over the next couple of times we see Sam Cooke, we'll see him rising to ever greater artistic heights, but we'll also see the damage he caused to himself and to others. Because the story of Sam Cooke gets very, very unpleasant.

While Sam is away scaling the equivalent of Mount Everest, Tim and Vass are left to scale their own mount of shit as we discuss the woes of Tottenham Hotspur after another insipid display. Listener questions dictating the agenda. #COYS #THFC Tottenham

While Sam is away scaling the equivalent of Mount Everest, Tim and Vass are left to scale their own mount of shit as we discuss the woes of Tottenham Hotspur after another insipid display. Listener questions dictating the agenda. #COYS #THFC Tottenham

In this episode of Outside The Bubble I’m chatting with Dr. Samantha Fecich, Professor, Author, Speaker, Podcaster, and PSL fan!  Sam is passionate about helping preservice teachers up their social media game and build an incredible online presence - the kind you’re not embarrassed about people, especially potential employers, finding.  While Sam is passionate about the work she does with preservice teachers our conversation goes into tips, tricks, and strategies for all teachers and students.  Topics covered in this episode include:  Why teachers need social media  Understanding how to shape and control your digital presence Assignments so we understand where we are online and what to do if we don’t like what we find Why it’s important to be a connected educator What type of content to post and where How to build a Twitter PLN Finding and using hashtags  Optimizing your social  media pages Tools you can use for social media  How to show up on social media when you feel like you have nothing to say How to show up on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook    My favorite from the episode:  “Spreading little bread crumbs of awesomeness over the internet” Connect with Sam via her website or @sfecich across social media.  www.sfecich.com  Join me on Instagram @OutSideTheBubblePodcast

While Sam’s away, Mandee will do absolutely nothing different while she forces her fiance to watch a movie he’s probably going to hate! This week Mandee and Anthony focus on politics watching Election and Sorry to Bother You. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

While Sam & Corinne are on vacation, Ben Klinger stepped up to share with us this morning from Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 7 thru 9.

While Sam & Corinne are on vacation, Ben Klinger stepped up to share with us this morning from Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 7 thru 9.

Topics: -Joe kicks off the show bringing up leisure time and time management  -Working ON the business vs working IN the business -A challenge for Sam is meeting interruptions that occur when clients reach out. Not just for him but for his staff -Sam may be on the lookout for a new hire but does he look for an admin or a tech? -The CCP crew are very appreciative of the collective audience and their feedback/advice -“This is not for everyone”. Sam comes to the realization that running a business isn’t something everyone can handle.  -A continual question for Sam is taking on Windows clients.  -Joe explores marketing new services to current clients as a method of increasing revenue. For instance, offering Ubiquiti installations for clients in need of upgraded Wi-Fi.  -QuickTime screen recording to the rescue for Sam as he tries to see a message that quickly disappears on his screen -Joe has some follow up to how he sets up his clients with individual Ubiquiti UniFi controllers. While Sam is moving to a central controller, specific logins per client is something they agree on.  -Cloud Key stability has plagued all of us. After some research, Joe has dug up information about the Mongo database and how it is prone to failure during a power loss. To combat this, Joe discusses his backup power plan for the Cloud Key.  -After a recent discussion with Christopher Stout on Episode 311, Sam is looking to setup a closed system like UniFi, Synology Surveillance Station or Security Spy -Sam learns some interesting details from a SonicWALL vendor about true throughput  -Friend of the show, Weldon Dodd points out a great write up by Rich Trouton on his site, Derflounder. It’s an interesting piece about enabling Touch ID for sudo commands.

While Sam is away in Jordan setting up his new salon, Faisal is joined by Sunnah Remedies (Abdul Hakim) who discusses what... The post Episode 105: Sunnah Remedies appeared first on Freshly Grounded.

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors! Topics: -The Command Control Power team has a call to action to request reviews on iTunes to help support the show. And if you feel so inclined, become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/cmdctrlpwr -Joe has experienced some oddities when using Messages at times when he has poor internet connectivity -Jerry questions why Joe doesn’t use iCloud Messages. Sam admits that he doesn’t use it either. -An explanation of “SIM hacking” has Jerry & Joe quite concerned. An episode from the Reply All Podcast is what started Joe down this road: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/130-the-snapchat-thief/id941907967?i=1000423456775 -Another show called Cyber Motherboard also discusses this topic: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sim-hijacking-and-the-phone-number-ransom/id1441708044?i=1000423673553 -Joe describes how some clients are skeptical of technology - not using Touch ID because "it will all be hacked eventually". Also not using a password manager and not using secure passwords because they are "giving up control" -While Sam isn’t entirely convinced, it is a security topic that we should all be paying attention to. -Sam transitions to a story about how he had to dig into his mindset and workflow for a client he hadn’t touched in many years. It gave him a moment to see how far he had come but at the same time, showed how his lack of notes caused the investigative work to be done.

What happens when the host of a podcast seriously dislikes the subject of the episode and the guest loves it? You get a very interesting conversation is what happens! On this installment of our all Keanu Reeves podcast, Sam (@samshotfirst) welcomes back Marcus Irving (@MarcusIrving317) to discuss the Eli Roth thriller Knock Knock. While Sam and Marcus don’t agree on much when it comes to the film, one thing they share is the belief that whatever Keanu is doing here can’t be missed!

Episode 13 – Fighting the impostor (syndrome) Hello 2019! Amy, Sophia, and Sam discuss impostor syndrome. While Sam was concerned this would leave him wanting to hide under the desk and cry-eat chocolate for the rest of the day, it turned into an unexpectedly uplifting talk. Get in touch with your experiences; what helps? what makes it worse? how can we help each other? Just a few links: We should all feel a bit more like impostors – Julia Rohrer - http://www.the100.ci/2018/08/02/we-should-all-feel-a-bit-more-like-impostors/ Sam’s old, early blog post on what impostor syndrome feels like https://samdparsons.blogspot.com/2017/10/students-questions-4-what-is-imposter.html

This week for locals on location, Kip jumped over to the newest and dankest poke bar in Denver. While Sam was away for a golf outing, Kip sat down with Chef Celeste Pfieffer of Hi Tide Tuna (25th & Larimer St) to talk of the new craze that has caught the attention and tastebuds of Denver. Between Poke-nachos & Frake (frozen sake), they also discuss Thailand, partying in Denver, and we have another rendition of #ChoppedBox & Uber ratings... Tune in, and tell a friend! #Denver #Colorado #Poke #FreshFish #Nachos #Frake #Sake #DenverEats #EatLocal #Coloradogram #Transplants #Native

Liv speaks with The Candid Millennial, Mary Robb, about her anxiety and some ways self-awareness helps her manage it.If anxiety is a sensitive topic for you, please proceed with caution. While SAM always seeks to be respectful, everyone has their own opinions and experiences which may differ from your own. Remember, you are the authority on you—please only take advice to heart what resonates and works for you. Mary made a lot of really great suggestions I hope some of you connect to. Though none of them involved medication, please know that is a viable and sometimes necessary step toward managing your anxiety. I have an aversion to what I think is over-medication, so I tend to advocate for other solutions whenever possible. However, sometimes medicine is the best solution. Deep down, if you listen carefully, you already know what you need. If your gut says "Xanax, please," do it.Part of the point of building self-awareness is to answer day-to-day questions like this without doubt or hesitation. Trust yourself to make the best choice for you at that moment.

While Sam and Kyle continue their search for Kimber, your hosts realize they might have hit the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of jokes, and Allen begins to see the pieces coming together."Borrasca" is credited to C.K. Walker, aka The_Dalek_Emperor. Read along here.