Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick Page B
Authors: Peter Guralnick
Tags: United States, Biography & Autobiography, music, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Biography, Genres & Styles, Cultural Heritage, Composers & Musicians, BIO004000, Soul & R 'N B, African American sound recording executives and producers, Soul musicians - United States, Soul musicians, Cooke; Sam
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got a big kick out of the fact that they could see everybody who came through the door, but the customers couldn’t see them. “So they would come in, and we would be singing, and they would be looking around, trying to figure out where the music was coming from.”
Itson used to love to hear them sing “When We Bow Our Knees at the Altar”—that was his favorite—and, in fact, when he got them their own Sunday-morning radio spot on WIND early in the new year, they adopted it as their theme song, coming in behind him as he solemnly intoned, “When we bow our knees at the altar” (“At the altar”) / “And the family have all gathered there” (“Gathered there”). Itson was crazy about them, and he was crazy about the entertainment life. He was their biggest fan.
It seemed like they were finally beginning to get somewhere. To have their own program on the radio, just behind the Soul Stirrers—now, that was really something. And radio time, as Itson was constantly pointing out, wasn’t cheap. Only the most successful quartets could afford to spend $85 for what amounted to a quarter of an hour of advertising. Because that, as they well knew, was the whole point. Even when they were out of town, they maintained the program. Itson had them make transcriptions, big prerecorded sixteen-inch acetates that could be played in their absence to announce where they would be appearing the following weekend, in addition to presenting a regular program of their music.
Itson had business cards made up for them, too, with all of their names listed and a different title assigned to each. Sam was President, naturally; Lee was Group Manager; Marvin was Secretary and Jake Assistant Secretary, while Creadell was appointed Treasurer and Gus named to the position of group Chaplain. “The Famous Radio Teen-Age Highway Q.C. Singers, Heard Each Sunday Morning 8:15 to 8:30,” it announced at the top, with Itson’s name above the title and all contact information included.
For the first time they were beginning to feel like the full-fledged professionals that they had always wanted to be, a feeling that was only reinforced when Itson scheduled their first big headlining program at DuSable in what was billed as a showdown with their one real rival on the teen gospel circuit, the Teen Age Valley Wonders of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Valley Wonders “mocked” the Pilgrim Travelers as much as the QCs “mocked” the Soul Stirrers—they were a family group made up of two brothers, their sister and father, and the boy singing lead sounded just like Kylo Turner, the Travelers’ lead singer. They had done a number of programs with the QCs—both groups tore the show up so bad “they had to open up the doors,” said Marvin, “to let the women out of there”—but this time the QCs had a surprise in store for their rivals. The Valley Wonders’ big new number was a song the Travelers had just put out called “Something Within Me,” and the QCs were determined to take it from them. They rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed, and Itson took out a big ad in the March 25 issue of the
Defender,
the same size the Soul Stirrers used to announce their programs. It had their new picture prominently displayed in the upper-left corner and declared:
THE TEEN AGE HIGHWAY QUE CEES
RADIO AND CONCERT ARTISTS
Presents
THE NATION’S FAVORITES
TEEN AGE
VALLEY WONDERS
of Cincinnati, O.
and the one and only
nationally known
Phillip Temple Juniors
OF TOLEDO
It was a confrontation to which they looked forward as eagerly as their fans. But, unfortunately, by the time it took place, their lead singer was in jail.
I T HAD TO DO WITH ANOTHER OF Sam’s girls, whose fifteen-year-old sister, a student at Doolittle, brought a “nasty book” that Sam had given to his girlfriend to school. One of the girl’s teachers intercepted the “obscene and indecent handwritten pamphlet,” and an arrest slip was made out on February 23,
Itson used to love to hear them sing “When We Bow Our Knees at the Altar”—that was his favorite—and, in fact, when he got them their own Sunday-morning radio spot on WIND early in the new year, they adopted it as their theme song, coming in behind him as he solemnly intoned, “When we bow our knees at the altar” (“At the altar”) / “And the family have all gathered there” (“Gathered there”). Itson was crazy about them, and he was crazy about the entertainment life. He was their biggest fan.
It seemed like they were finally beginning to get somewhere. To have their own program on the radio, just behind the Soul Stirrers—now, that was really something. And radio time, as Itson was constantly pointing out, wasn’t cheap. Only the most successful quartets could afford to spend $85 for what amounted to a quarter of an hour of advertising. Because that, as they well knew, was the whole point. Even when they were out of town, they maintained the program. Itson had them make transcriptions, big prerecorded sixteen-inch acetates that could be played in their absence to announce where they would be appearing the following weekend, in addition to presenting a regular program of their music.
Itson had business cards made up for them, too, with all of their names listed and a different title assigned to each. Sam was President, naturally; Lee was Group Manager; Marvin was Secretary and Jake Assistant Secretary, while Creadell was appointed Treasurer and Gus named to the position of group Chaplain. “The Famous Radio Teen-Age Highway Q.C. Singers, Heard Each Sunday Morning 8:15 to 8:30,” it announced at the top, with Itson’s name above the title and all contact information included.
For the first time they were beginning to feel like the full-fledged professionals that they had always wanted to be, a feeling that was only reinforced when Itson scheduled their first big headlining program at DuSable in what was billed as a showdown with their one real rival on the teen gospel circuit, the Teen Age Valley Wonders of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Valley Wonders “mocked” the Pilgrim Travelers as much as the QCs “mocked” the Soul Stirrers—they were a family group made up of two brothers, their sister and father, and the boy singing lead sounded just like Kylo Turner, the Travelers’ lead singer. They had done a number of programs with the QCs—both groups tore the show up so bad “they had to open up the doors,” said Marvin, “to let the women out of there”—but this time the QCs had a surprise in store for their rivals. The Valley Wonders’ big new number was a song the Travelers had just put out called “Something Within Me,” and the QCs were determined to take it from them. They rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed, and Itson took out a big ad in the March 25 issue of the
Defender,
the same size the Soul Stirrers used to announce their programs. It had their new picture prominently displayed in the upper-left corner and declared:
THE TEEN AGE HIGHWAY QUE CEES
RADIO AND CONCERT ARTISTS
Presents
THE NATION’S FAVORITES
TEEN AGE
VALLEY WONDERS
of Cincinnati, O.
and the one and only
nationally known
Phillip Temple Juniors
OF TOLEDO
It was a confrontation to which they looked forward as eagerly as their fans. But, unfortunately, by the time it took place, their lead singer was in jail.
I T HAD TO DO WITH ANOTHER OF Sam’s girls, whose fifteen-year-old sister, a student at Doolittle, brought a “nasty book” that Sam had given to his girlfriend to school. One of the girl’s teachers intercepted the “obscene and indecent handwritten pamphlet,” and an arrest slip was made out on February 23,
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