A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke (1964)

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Sam Cooke

A Change is Gonna Come is a song released in mid-February, 1964 performed by Sam Cooke. The song is written by Cooke for his album `` Ain't That Good News by RCA Victor. Edited version was released on December 22, 1964, produced by Hugo & Luigi.

The soul-R&B song was inspired by Cooke’s personal events, in which he and his crew were turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana because he was black. He felt pushed to write a song that voiced his struggle and those around him, and it related to the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans. The song’s refrain "It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come."

A Change is Gonna Come is considered as Cooke’s best composition and has been voted among the best songs. The song, in 2007, was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress, with the National Recording Registry deeming the song "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important." [1]

The 1964 R&B hit is a song associated with African-American Civil Rights Movement, inspired by folk/rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” [2]

Black Empowerment

Racial segregation affected Cooke personally as a black singer from the South. He was previously arrested and jailed, in October 1963, after refusing to be turned away from a Shreveport, La., hotel which his reservation had been accepted.

The song remained as a soul-music legend, though he didn’t live and feel its success and reception. Aretha Franklin covered the song hundred of times. "He was one of the greatest male singers of all time," Franklin says. "You put him in the category with Caruso and Pavarotti and these other great names. Sam Cooke, bar none, was one of the greatest singers of all time." [3]

Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come immediately became an anthem for the civil rights movement. As Sam Cooke’s Biographer, Peter Guralnick said, “Generation after generation has heard the promise of it. It continues to be a song of enormous impact…. And that makes it almost endlessly adaptable to whatever goal, whatever movement is of the moment. Sam Cooke and the Song that Almost Scared Him.” [4]

Here is Sam Cooke's part of lyrics from A Change Is Gonna Come:

I go to the movie,

and I go downtown

Somebody keep tellin’ me don’t hang around

It’s been a long, a long time comin’,

but I know a change gon’ come. [5]

References