How about "church boy" Same Cooke?
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@sneakypete This was Sam Cooke in his gospel years---when he first attracted attention as the lead voice (and most popular and respected such voice) of the legendary Soul Stirrers . . .
The Soul Stirrers, "Nearer My God to Thee"
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1The Soul Stirrers, "Be With Me Jesus"
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1You had a point about Aretha Franklin, too. Columbia Records spent several years trying to find a way to push her but to no avail. When they dropped her, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records signed her up at once. Asked what he thought he could do that Columbia couldn't, Wexler laid it down flatly: "We're gonna put her back in church." Meaning he'd let Aretha do what Columbia couldn't or wouldn't---let her lean on her gospel roots. (And, give in when session musician Spooner Oldham, noticing how uncomfortable she was just singing, told Wexler, "I know you hired me to play piano but look at her. Put her at the piano and let me play the organ or the vibes or something." Bull's eye.) The rest, of course . . .
Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)"
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1Motown did much the same thing with Gladys Knight & the Pips when they signed with the company and were put on the Soul subsidiary label. Producer/writers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong handed them a song they'd written that played right to the Pips' gospel origins. Gladys Knight herself once said the group lived with the song for a full week, "tearing it down, doing the little things," and the result was not just their first crossover hit but just sweat right out of the classic black storefront church from opening to fade . . .
Gladys Knight & the Pips, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
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