Sam Cooke started as a teenager in one of the country’s hottest gospel acts, The Soul Stirrers and ended as a hitmaking R&B vocalist before his death at age 33. In between the church circuit and his contract with RCA came his initial foray into pop music on an indie label, Keen Records. His recordings from that brief but prolific period are gathered in a CD box set comprised of his five Keen LPs, recorded in glorious mono, plus stereo mixes an single-length edits of several tracks.
Keen Records positioned Cooke on parallel paths: the adult hi-fi crowd and the teens who bought 45s. For the former, he recorded many songs that would later be identified with the Great American songbook. Occasionally he was burdened by schmaltzy production (the angelic choir on “God Bless the Child”). Sometimes he strained to connect with the lyric (“as the wind is strumming a sagebrush guitar” in “Along the Navajo Trail”). More often he brought a fresh angle to familiar material with the freedom to alter expected arrangements while keeping true to the melody. The Complete Keen Years includes two versions of “Summertime”; the one found on Cooke’s self-titled 1958 album is among the best ever recorded.
The teen pop audience was well served by hits written by Cooke, including “Only Sixteen” and “You Send Me.” The best of them emerged from doowop and were delivered with the devotion he once reserved for the Lord. Cooke could sing standards with jazzy ease and match Sinatra for swagger, but his was a voice that knew loss and how to convey melancholy.
