Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” named a Songwriter Hall of Fame Towering Song

A Change Is Gonna Come Sam Cooke

Writer(s): Sam Cooke (see lyrics here) Released: December 22, 1964 First Charted: January 9, 1965 Peak: 31 US, 46 CB, 53 HR, 9 RB, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 42.41 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The song which “became an anthem of the civil rights movement in the United States” NRR owed its existence to a black man determined to outdo a white man’s commentary on racism. Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” “profoundly inspired and disturbed” RS500 Sam Cooke, who said at the time, “Jeez, a white boy writing a song like that?” RS500 Cooke responded with an introspective protest song in which he “preaches a sermon on humanity,” MA tapping into his personal experiences and capturing the pain and suffering of a greater whole. He gave first-person accounts of segregation and an event in which he and members of his entourage were arrested for disturbing the peace at a white motel in Shreveport, Louisiana, RS500 while also mourning the accidental drowning death of his infant son. RS500 Despite its “weary tone” WK and the negative circumstances which birthed the song, it is a “hopeful tome and vision for a multi-cultural society” SH which has been called the soul singer’s “most significant and enduring composition.” SH It also served as “Cooke’s farewell address and final hit.” RS500 He recorded “Change” in December 1963, WK but it wasn’t until after he was fatally shot a year later at a Los Angeles motel that the song was released as a single. Its reach is demonstrated by the myriad of artists who have covered the song. Among the 500+ versions are those by The Band, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Bragg, Terence Trent D’Arby, Bob Dylan, Gavin DeGraw, Aretha Franklin, the Fugees, Al Green, Greta Van Fleet, R. Kelly, Otis Redding, the Righteous Brothers, Seal, The Supremes, Three Dog Night, Tina Turner, and Bobby Womack. Resources: MA Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New York, NY; New American Library. Page 28. NRR National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress The Full National Recording Registry RS500 Rolling Stone (4/7/2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SF Songfacts.com SH Songwriters Hall of Fame Towering Song Award WK Wikipedia.org Related Links: First posted 4/22/2013; last updated 8/16/2022.

50 years ago: Tony Bennett charted with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”

I Left My Heart in San Francisco Tony Bennett

Writer(s): George Cory (m)/Douglass Cross (l) (see lyrics here) Released: February 2, 1962 First Charted: April 14, 1962 Peak: 19 US, 7 AC, 25 UK (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 15.0 worldwide (includes 1 million in sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 8.06 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Tony Bennett has reigned (albeit with utter modesty) as one of the definitive interpreters of American popular song for more than sixty years.” SS Frank Sinatra “considered him without equal,” SS calling him “the best singer in the business” in a 1965 Life magazine interview. SF In regards to “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” Bennett’s “trademark song,” SS author Thomas Ryan said, “Imagine, for a moment, anyone else singing this song. It is beyond the reach of most artists, and the very few who could pull it off wouldn’t dare because it would inevitably invoke comparison.” RY The then-unknown team of composer George Cory and lyricist Douglass Cross composed the song in 1954. They gave it to Ralph Sharon, who became Bennett’s pianist and musical director in 1957. Sharon put it and some other songs in a drawer and forgot about them. When he re-discovered them in mid-1961, he played “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” for Bennett after a show in Arkansas. Bennett loved it. SS They introduced the song at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Remarkably, Bennett had never performed in the city before. SS When label representatives from Columbia heard the song during a rehearsal, they were sure it could be the comeback hit Bennett needed. SS While it barely scratched the top 20, it went on to sell more than 14 million copies over the years, plus another million in sheet music sales. SF The song won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance. When it was honored with the Towering Song Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, chairman Hal David said, “Tony Bennettt is a songwriter’s singer, who has recorded outstanding and unforgettable interpretations of many pop songs which have become standards. He is one of the best examples of the true marriage of song and singer.” SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Tony Bennett RY Thomas Ryan (1996). American Hit Radio: A History of Popular Singles From 1955 to the Present. Prima Publishing: Rocklin, CA. Pages 89-90. SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 311-2. WK Wikipedia First posted 4/11/2020; last updated 7/17/2022.

50 years ago: “Moon River” hit the chart

Moon River Henry Mancini with Audrey Hepburn

Writer(s): Henry Mancini (music)/ Johnny Mercer (lyrics) (see lyrics here) First Charted: October 7, 1961 Peak: 11 US, 5 CB, 7 HR, 11 AC, 44 UK, 14 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 34.3 video, 76.11 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: This song, written for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, ranks #4 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest movie songs. The movie, directed by Blake Edwards, was an adaptation of Truman Capote’s book Holly Golightly. Henry Mancini, hot off his success composing for TV’s Peter Gunn, was tapped to write the score. When he needed, as his wife Virginia said, a “haunting song that would depict Holly Golightly as a little girl from a small town who is trying to be very sophisticated in big, bad New York City,” SS he turned to Johnny Mercer, one of his songwriting idols. Like the movie’s main character, Mercer left his home in the south for “the glittering lights of a sophisticated New York.” TC He was “firmly established as one of the great American composers” TC and co-founded Capitol Records in 1942, but hadn’t had a hit in years. SS The result was a song which “neatly pivots on nostalgia for a lost youth and the romance of the future.” TC It “was both a little folksly and a little elegant.” JV The song won Grammys for Record and Song of the Year. Over the years, three different artists took it to #1 on three different charts. The original topped the adult contemporary chart, Jerry Butler took it to #1 in New Zealand, and Danny Williams reached the pinnacle on the UK chart. WK Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Morrissey, R.E.M., Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, and Sarah Vaughan have also recorded the song. WK Mancini drew his musical inspiration from the script and Audrey Hepburn, the film’s star TC and “the reigning queen of Hollywood.” SS He said her “big eyes gave me the push to get a little more sentimental than I usually do.” TC After seeing the movie with Mancini’s score, Hepburn wrote him a letter, saying, “A movie without music is a little bit like an aeroplane without fuel. However beautifully the job is done, we are still on the ground and in a world of reality. Your music has lifted us all up and sent us soaring.” TC Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Henry Mancini TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 667. JV David Jenness and Don Velsey (2006). Classic American Popular Song. Routledge: New York, NY. Page 196. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 475-6. WK Wikipedia First posted 4/10/2020; last updated 10/22/2022.