Touch the Hem of His Garment

We forget sometimes that the roots of the very, very secular – some say downright profane – music known as rock & roll lie deep in the church. Specifically, in the gospel music that developed in the Black churches of the post-Civil War American south and spread north with the Great Migration. Sam Cooke, one of the great crossover stars of the 1960’s, started his career as a member of the legendary gospel group The Soul Stirrers; he was the lead vocalist during the group’s commercial peak in the mid-1950’s. Cooke soon realized that he could expand his influence, fame, and financial prospects in the secular sector (he was an early client of Allen Klein) but his years leading the Soul Stirrers have been credited with popularizing traditional gospel music outside of the segregated church circuit.