Four-LP vinyl reissue of the 1994 set profiling the soul and gospel label co-owned by Sam Cooke.
Various
★★★★
Sam Cooke’s SAR Records Story 1959-1965
ABKCO. DL/LP
BY SUMMER 1959, when Sam Cooke formed SAR Records with his road manager S Roy Crain and music publisher JW Alexander, he’d already been through the financial ringer courtesy of Specialty Records and the short-lived Keen label. With Specialty, the Mississippi-born Soul Stirrers’ frontman and rising pop star was on a 0.5 per cent royalty that earned him $2,500 for every million records sold, and with the disorganised Keen set-up Cooke’s unpaid royalties for chart-topping solo records, like 1957’s You Send Me, were effectively keeping the label solvent. Cooke realised he could do a lot better both as a label boss and business manager. Plus, in his time at Specialty and Keen, the singer had grown in confidence and ability, writing more, picking up production skills and, most importantly, developing an in-thestudio manner that put other artists at ease. The label’s first signing was Cooke’s own former gospel outfit The Soul Stirrers, recently dropped by Specialty and with a new singer, Johnnie Taylor.
Their first session, included in its entirety here, is headed by the gorgeous Stand By Me Father. Written by Cooke, Alexander and Junior Parker, it is a significant, transitional track for songwriter Cooke, perfectly defining the SAR blend of gospel harmonies, torch song sentiments and pop-soul arrangements, with Taylor effortlessly emulating Cooke’s sweet, pleading tenor. On other Stirrers tracks such as Wade In The Water and Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep, you hear Cooke’s in-the-studio chatter, coaxing better performances from the singers (“Give me a little bit more air between that ‘Oh’ and ‘lookin’ back’, Ji
