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"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a 1965 single by R&B singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, written and first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label a month after his late 1964 death. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song became one of his first blatantly political songs, and came to exemplify the sixties Civil Rights Movement. The song has gained in popularity and critical acclaim in the decades since its release.
Origins
Recording After remaining confined to Sam Cooke's notebooks for months of touring, "A Change Is Gonna Come" was finally recorded on December 21, 1963. Recording took place at the RCA Studios in Los Angeles, California during sessions for Cooke's 1964 album, Ain't That Good News. According to author Peter Guralnick's biography of Cooke, "Dream Boogie," Cooke gave arranger Rene Hall free rein on song's musical arrangement. Hall came up with a dramatic orchestral backing highlighted by a mournful French horn. For his vocal, Cooke reached back to his gospel roots to sing the song with an intensity and passion never heard before on his pop recordings. Release The song made its first appearance on Ain't That Good News, the last album to released within Cooke's lifetime. The LP did well, peaking at number 34 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, making it more successful than Cooke's previous LP, 1963's Night Beat. However, Cooke and his new manager Allen Klein thought the song deserved greater exposure. According to Guralnick's book, Klein persuaded Cooke to sing "A Change Is Gonna Come" on his February 7th, 1964 appearance on The Tonight Show. Cooke sang the song; unfortunately, any impact it made was dimmed by The Beatles' history-making appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show just two days later. In a further misfortune, NBC did not save the tape of Cooke's performance, which has never turned up in private collections either. RCA Records had bypassed "Change" for Cooke's early 1964 single, instead releasing the tracks "Good Times" and "(Ain't That) Good News". But the company agreed to put the song out as a single late in the year, as the B-side to Cooke's latest potential hit, "Shake." At one of his last recording sessions, Cooke approved an edit to the song that would shorten it by about 30 seconds, increasing its chance for airplay on American radio stations. Finally given proper attention, "A Change Is Gonna Come" became a sensation among the black community, and was used an anthem for the ongoing civil rights protests. On R&B radio, the song peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Black Singles chart, and topped many local playlists, most notably in Chicago. The song had more limited success on top 40 radio. By February 1965, the song had peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and fallen off. Sadly, Cooke did not live to see the song's commercial success. On December 11, 1964, he was killed at the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California under what many consider mysterious circumstances. Legacy Though only a moderate success sales-wise, "A Change Is Gonna Come" became an anthem for the American Civil Rights Movement, and is widely considered Cooke's best composition. Over the years, the song has garnered significant praise and, in 2005, was voted number 12 by representatives of the music industry and press in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song is also among three hundred songs deemed the most important ever recorded by National Public Radio (NPR). Despite its acclaim, legal troubles have haunted the single since its release. A dispute between Cooke's music publisher, ABKCO, and record company, RCA Records, made the recording unavailable for much of the four decades since its release. Though the song was featured prominently in the 1992 film Malcolm X, it could not be included in the film's soundtrack. By 2003, however, the disputes had been settled in time for the song to be included on the remastered version of Ain't That Good News, as well as the Cooke anthology Portrait of a Legend. "A Change Is Gonna Come" was a precursor to many later socially-conscious singles, including Marvin Gaye's lauded "What's Going On". Al Green, a self-professed fan of Cooke, covered the song for the concert celebrating the 1996 opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Green's live rendition was included in the soundtrack to the 2001 Michael Mann film Ali. James Taylor recorded a version specially for an episode of the same title of the television drama The West Wing. Other notable artists who have covered the song include The Band, The 5th Dimension, Otis Redding, The Neville Brothers and The Supremes. A more recent cover was recorded by Terence Trent D'Arby for the PBS series "The Promised Land". The Fugees covered the song on their greatest hits album. Contemporary gospel singer Deitrick Haddon recorded a version for the soundtrack of the 2005 film The Gospel (although it does not appear in the film itself). Chart performance Credits See also | ||||||||||
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