"
A Change Is Gonna Come" is a 1964 single by
R&B singer-songwriter
Sam Cooke, written and first recorded in 1963 and
released under the
RCA Victor label
shortly after his death in late 1964. Though only a modest hit for
Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song came to
exemplify
the sixties' Civil Rights
Movement. The song has gained in popularity and critical
acclaim in the decades since its release.
Conception
Origins
Cooke was
greatly moved upon hearing Bob Dylan's
"Blowin' in the Wind" in 1963
and was reportedly in awe that such a poignant song about racism in
America
could come
from someone who was not black. While on tour in May
1963, and after speaking with sit-in demonstrators in Durham, North
Carolina
following a concert, Cooke returned to his tour bus
and wrote the first draft of what would become "A Change Is Gonna
Come."The song also reflected much of Cooke's own inner
turmoil. Known for his polished image and light-hearted
songs such as "You Send Me" and "Twistin' the Night Away", he had
long felt the need to address the situation of discrimination and
racism in America, especially the
southern states. However, his image
and fears of losing his largely white fan base prevented him from
doing so.
The song, very much a departure for Cooke, reflected two major
incidents in his life. The first was the death of Cooke's
18-month-old son, Vincent, who died of an accidental drowning in
June of that year.
The second major incident came on October 8,
1963, when Cooke and his band tried to register at a "whites only"
motel in Shreveport,
Louisiana
and were summarily arrested for disturbing the
peace. Both incidents are represented in the weary tone and
lyrics of the piece, especially the final verse:
There have
been times that I thought I couldn't last for long/but now I think
I'm able to carry on/It's been a long time coming, but I know a
change is gonna come.
Recording
After remaining confined to 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.
Reception
Release
The song made its first appearance on
Ain't That Good
News, the last album to be 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 7, 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 as 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. Cooke, however, 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, and voted number 3 in the webzine
Pitchfork Media's
The 200 Greatest Songs of the 60s. The song is also among
three hundred songs deemed the most important ever recorded by
National Public Radio (NPR)
and was recently selected by the Library of Congress
as one of twenty-five selected recordings to the
National Recording
Registry as of March 2007. The song is currently ranked
as the 95th greatest song of all time, as well as the seventh best
song of
1965, by Acclaimed
Music.
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.
The Allman Brothers Band captured
their performance of the song on their 2003 DVD
Live at the
Beacon Theatre.
Other notable artists who have covered the song include
Cory Wells,
Bob Dylan,
Aretha Franklin,
The 5th Dimension (in a 1970 medley with
The Rascals' "
People Got to Be Free"),
The Band,
Wayne Brady,
Billy Bragg,
Solomon Burke,
Terence Trent D'Arby,
Gavin Degraw, the
Fugees,
the
Cold War Kids,
The Gits,
Deitrick
Haddon,
Patti Labelle,
Solo,
Prince
Buster,
Morten Harket,
The Neville Brothers,
jacksoul,
Ben Sollee,
Johnny P,
Billy Preston,
Otis Redding,
Michael Thompson featuring
Bobby Womack,
Leela James,
Tina
Turner,
The Righteous
Brothers (
Bobby Hatfield solo),
and
The Supremes.
Arcade Fire has used the song in support of
Barack Obama's nomination for
President of the United
States. In recent years, the song has served as a
sample for
rappers
Ghostface Killah (1996),
Ja Rule (2003),
Papoose (2006),
Lil
Wayne (2007) "Long Time Coming (remix)" and
Nas's
It Was Written album
also features a similar opening as the song. On their album
The Reunion hip-hop artists
Capone-N-Noreaga used an excerpt from the
song on the opening track which shares the same title as the Cooke
original. British soul singer
Beverley
Knight says the song is her all time favourite and has
performed it live many a time; most notably on 'Later with
Jools Holland'. On May 6, 2008, during the
seventh season of
American
Idol, the song was sung by contestant
Syesha Mercado as the remaining top 4.
After
winning the 2008 United States
presidential election, Barack Obama
referred to the song, stating to his supporters in Chicago
, "It's been
a long time coming, but tonight, change has come to
America." A duet of the song by
Bettye LaVette and
Jon Bon Jovi was included in
We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln
Memorial.
In 2009,
Aaron Neville, along with the
Mt. Zion Mass Choir, released a version of the song “A Change Is
Gonna Come” on the compilation album
Oh Happy
Day.
American Idol creator/producer
Simon Fuller selected the song for
contestant
Adam Lambert to sing in the
season 8 finale in May,
2009.
Vel Omarr, who occasionally does
Sam Cooke Reviews and has done so for many years,
Released his version of "A Change Is Gonna Come" (arrangement by
Carl Protho)in 2008.Other than Cooke's own composition, Omarr's
rendition is said to be one of the most definitive to date.
Julian Casablancas (of
The Strokes), said that "Change Is Gonna Come"
is his favorite song of all time.
Chart history (Sam Cooke version)
Seal version
Singer
Seal also recently covered this
song for his new album
Soul. He performed it during a
guest appearance as himself on an episode of
Eli Stone that aired in the USA on December 9,
2008. It has been released as the leading single for the album. It
was a moderate success, peaking on the
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at
#73.
Charts (Seal version)
| Chart (2008) |
Peak
position |
| Belgium Walonia Singles Chart |
31 |
| Dutch Singles Chart |
38 |
| Swiss Singles Chart |
73 |
| UK Singles Chart |
152 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs |
73 |
| U.S. Billboard Smooth Jazz Songs |
29 |
|
Credits
See also
References
- Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964. Abkco Records, 2003.
Los Angeles, California.
External links
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