A1 Hey There 	2:32 	
A2 Mona Lisa 	2:34 	
A3 Too Young 	2:08 	
A4 The Great Pretender 	3:02 	
A5 You, You, You 	2:45 	
A6 Unchained Melody 	3:24 		play	
B1 The Wayward Wind 	3:10 	
B2 Secret Love 	2:46 	
B3 The Song From Moulin Rouge 	2:30 	
B4 I'm Walking Behind You 	2:45 	
B5 Cry 	2:13		play 	
B6 Venus 	2:53 	

Sam Cooke – vocals
Glenn Osser – conductor

Sam Cooke's second RCA album is mostly a missed opportunity, in terms of representing much about Sam Cooke as an artist or singer -- having him cover pop hits of the previous decade wasn't a terrible idea on its face, but Cooke was still getting accustomed to working at RCA, and he wasn't inspired by the material or the way it was chosen, and the result is an album aimed at what the label thought the white teenage market was all about (and what the company thought the parents of those kids would be most comfortable with them buying from a black recording artist), that's a lot less interesting than some of the singles, including "Chain Gang" and "Wonderful World," that he was doing around the same time. His versions of hits associated with Nat "King" Cole, Johnnie Ray, and the Platters should have made for a more interesting record. Hits of the Fifties is still an improvement over its immediate predecessor, Cooke's Tour, but it's also one of the records that for many years -- in the absence of his best material being available -- blighted Cooke's reputation as a soul singer. ---Bruce Eder, allmusic.com

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01. Touch the Hem of His Garment
02. Lovable
03. You Send Me
04. Only Sixteen
05. For Sentimental Reasons, (I Love You)
06. Just For You
07. Win Your Love For Me
08. Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha
09. I'll Come Running Back to You
10. You Were Made For Me
11. Sad Mood
12. Cupid
13. Wonderful World, (What A)
14. Chain Gang
15. Summertime
16. Little Red Rooster             play
17. Bring It on Home to Me      play
18. Nothing Can Change This Love
19. Sugar Dumpling
20. Good News, (Ain't That)
21. Meet Me at Mary's Place
22. Twistin' the Night Away
23. Shake
24. Tennessee Waltz
25. Another Saturday Night
26. Good Times
27. Having a Party
28. That's Where It's At
29. Change Is Gonna Come, A
30. Jesus Gave Me Water

Some 46 years after his first pop hit, and 39 years after his death, comes only the second attempt at a comprehensive Sam Cooke collection. Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 eclipses RCA's early-'80s The Man and His Music, going it better in running time but losing some important recordings -- "That's Heaven to Me" and "Soothe Me," arguably one of Cooke's most important songs -- in the process of summing up his career. From 1951's Soul Stirrers' gospel classic "Touch the Hem of His Garment" through to 1964's "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Shake," we get highlights of Cooke's career presented in state-of-the-art digital audio; superior in every way possible to the audio quality of The Man and His Music. What's more, this is a hybrid disc with SACD capability, and the sound on that layer is almost as much of a jump above the quality on the CD layer as this remastering is from the old The Man and His Music disc; and either the standard CD or the SACD playback makes that 1980s-issued compilation sound faint and anemic. There's also annotation here -- which was totally lacking on the earlier CD -- by Peter Guralnick, which delves very effectively into the background of each song. And the producers have taken the trouble to be a little inventive in the programming -- it would have been easy enough to follow a strict chronological approach, but instead the disc opens and closes with tracks that reveal Cooke's gospel roots, which is pretty much where his music started and where it ended up, bookending his first hit with songs from his first session ever. ---Bruce Eder, AllMusic Review

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CD1
1. Wonderful World
2. Only Sixteen
3. Chain Gang
4. You Send Me
5. Sad Moon
6. Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha
7. Summertime
8. (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
9. Steal Away
10. Venus
11. Ol' Man River
12. Win Your Love For Me
13. You Were Made For Me
14. The Little Things You Do				play
15. Unchained Melody
16. They Can't Take That Away From Me
17. There, I've Said It Again
18. She's Funny That Way
19. The Great Pretender
20. Blue Moon
21. Cry
22. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
23. Hey There!
24. Desire Me
25. Let's Go Steady Again
26. I'll Come Running Back To You

CD2
1. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
2. I'm Just A Country Boy
3. Thay Call The Wind Mariah
4. Twilight On The Trail
5. If I Had You
6. Chain Gang
7. Grandfather's Clock
8. I Dream Of Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair
9. Pray
10. Long, Long Ago
11. You Belong To Me

Cooke's Tour

12. Goin' Home
13. Far Away Places
14. Under Paris Skies
15. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)
16. Bali Ha'i
17. The Coffee Song							play
18. Arrivederci, Roma (Goodbye To Rome)
19. London By Night
20. Jamaica Farewell
21. Galway Bay
22. Sweet Leilani
23. Japanese Farewell Song
24. The House I Live In

Sam Cooke is one of the few artists in the history of rock music whose music is timeless. Over forty years after his tragic death at the age of 33, his legend lives on. Not only was he a tremendous performer he was also an incredibly talented writer and had a profound influence on a number of other artists.

The recently remastered and expanded The Best of Sam Cooke showcases the songs that defined Cooke's all too brief career. All of his major hits are included (such as "You Send Me", "Cupid", "Twistin' the Night Away" and others) as well as equally successful but perhaps lesser known hits such as the three bonus tracks added for this reissue: "Win Your Love For Me," "You Were Made for Me" and "Nothing Can Change This Love."

Cooke was a remarkable songwriter having penned 13 of the 15 tracks in this collection. He co-wrote "(What a) Wonderful World" with Lou Adler and Herb Alpert. The other non-Cooke song, "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons" was a cover of a Nat King Cole hit.

The Best of Sam Cooke has a distinctive place in the history of rock music having never gone out of print since its original release in 1962. With the remastered edition of this hits collection, fans of Sam Cooke can be reminded of the amazing range of talents he possessed. For those who have never been introduced to Cooke, this collection is by far the best place to start in getting to know one of the true legends of rock music. --- blogcritics.org

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A1 	God Bless The Child 	2:32
A2 	She's Funny That Way 	1:49
A3 	I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues 	2:31
A4 	Good Morning Heartache 	2:06
A5 	T'Aint Nobody's Bizness (If I Do) 	2:23
A6 	Come Love 	2:38
B1 	Lover Girl (Man) 	2:25
B2 	Let's Call The Whole Thing Off 	2:19
B3 	Lover Come Back To Me 	2:10
B4 	Solitude 	2:22
B5 	They Can't Take That Away From Me 	2:28
B6 	Crazy In Love With You 	2:33

An album that's seldom been seen and disappeared almost as quickly as it was released. Sam Cooke turned these songs inside out with twisting, awesome interpretations. It was one of the few times he was able to break out of the light pop/teen idol bag in a studio and pour his heart into great lyrics and numbers. ---Ron Wynn, AllMusic Review

Sam "Mr. Soul" Cooke was multi-talented, and his range of songs were from Gospel to Jazz including blues and folk. Here he sings songs made famous by the great Billie Holliday. He does more than justice to them all, and I am sure "Lady Day" felt honored by his rendition of her songs. In the last months of his career and life, you can hear him doing a mixture of songs on "Live at the Copa," and if you want a real soulful/Gospel oriented album, get the "Live at the Harlem Square Club." The only live Gospel album is "The Great 1955 Shrine Concert" where he rocked the house (church gathering). I am fortunate to meet and talk with Sam Cook late in 1955 when he was with the Soul Stirrers in my home city of Charleston, SC. My teenage Gospel group members and I went to see him, and he treated us as if each one of us was special. We were only fourteen and fifteen years old at the time. We saw women - and men - screaming and the women falling out from his powerful singing. When he was murdered, we all felt as if we had lost a big brother. When people visit us, they see so much Sam Cooke paraphernalia that they ask, "Were you related to Sam Cooke?" lol By the way, he added the "e" to his name when he left the Soul Stirrers and the Gospel circuit and went secular in 1957. He was born Samuel Cook. I bought "Tribute to the Lady" as a gift, and my son loves it. I had the vinyl copy back in the 60s. ---Caroll L., amazon.com

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1. "Feel It" (Wilson Pickett) – 3:46 
2. "Chain Gang" (Cooke) – 3:11 
3. "Cupid" (Cooke) – 2:46 
4. "Medley: It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons" – 5:11 
5. "Twistin' the Night Away" (Cooke) – 4:19 
6. "Somebody Have Mercy" (Cooke) – 4:45 
7. "Bring It On Home to Me" (Cooke) – 5:37 
8. "Nothing Can Change This Love" (Cooke) – 3:45 
9. "Having a Party" (Cooke) – 4:09

Sam Cooke - Vocals
Cornell Dupree - Guitar
Albert "Gentleman June" Gardner - Drums
Tate Houston - Saxophone
King Curtis - Saxophone
Jimmy Lewis - Bass
George Stubbs - Piano
Clifton White - Guitar 

Not only is this one of the greatest live soul albums ever released, it also reveals a rougher, rawer, and more immediate side to Sam Cooke that his singles only hinted at, good as they were. Working with a merged band that included guitarist Cliff White and drummer Albert "June" Gardner from Cooke's regular touring outfit and saxophonist King Curtis and his band, Cooke brings a gospel fervor to these whirlwind versions, which are fiery, emotionally direct, and hit with uncommon power. Every track burns with an insistent, urgent feel, and although Cooke practically defines melisma on his single releases, here he reaches past that into deeper territory that finds him almost literally shoving and pushing each song forward with shouts, asides, and spoken interactions with the audience, which becomes as much a part of this set as any bandmember. "Chain Gang" is stripped down to a raw nerve, "Twistin' the Night Away" explodes out of the gate like a runaway rocket, and Curtis' sax breaks on "Somebody Have Mercy" make it sound like the saxophone was invented for this one song alone. Throughout Cooke's voice is a raspy laser that makes it obvious what Rod Stewart picked up from this recording, and it is impossible not to hear Cooke's voice looming behind Stewart's once you've heard this amazing live set. Although recorded January 12, 1963, at the Harlem Square Club in Miami in 1963, RCA didn't release it as an album until 1985. The set was remixed from the original first generation three-track tape for 2000's The Man Who Invented Soul box, and while the music (and Cooke's vocals in particular) sounded much cleaner, much of the crowd noise from the 1985 mixes was toned down, robbing the recording of some of its claustrophobic, frenzied power. The mix used here seems to more or less split the difference, but the crucial key is and was always Cooke's vocals, and while he was a marvelously smooth, versatile, and urbane singer on his official pop recordings, here he explodes into one of the finest sets of raw secular gospel ever captured on tape. It is essential listening in any version. ---Steve Leggett, AllMusic Review

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