While the pop classics by the grit-and-honey singer reached a broader audience, Sam Cooke's formative music with the Soul Stirrers, recorded for the Specialty label, ranks with both his best and gospel's best. Only 19 when he was recruited in 1950 to replace the group's venerable R.H. Harris, Cooke developed the signature style he would carry into the popular arena while he was still singing church music. Disc 1 shows the raw passion of a vocalist who has yet to apply the polish for which he would become known. By disc 2, Cooke is no longer tentative in replacing a legend but asserting an irrepressible musical identity. Disc 3 demonstrates his growth as both a vocal master and an ambitious songwriter--most famously on "Touch the Hem of His Garment"--while documenting his transition as a solo artist into the secular arena. Among the revelations of the set's 83 tracks, the stripped-down arrangements on the alternate takes of "Come and Go to That Land" anticipate the rise of "sacred steel," while the vocal call-and-response over the organ bedrock of "All Right Now" is as rapturous as gospel gets. After the various takes of "Were You There?" show how Cooke could take the most familiar material and make it his own, the final three tracks capture his electrifying impact in live performance. --Don McLeese
