Dream Boogie

Book excerpt: One of the most influential African American singers/songwriters in the late 1950s, Sam Cooke was among the first to blend gospel music and secular themes - the early foundation of soul music. He was the opposite of Elvis: a black performer who appealed to white audiences, who wrote his own songs, who controlled his own business destiny. In Dream Boogie, bestselling author Peter Guralnick captures Sam Cooke's remarkable accomplishment and chronicles his moving and important story, from Cooke's childhood as a choirboy to an adulthood when he was anything but that.