The sexuality of Sam Cooke
Did the soul icon icon keep secrets?
He’s called the most influential ‘soul artist’ of all time. Sam Cooke sang iconic songs like “You Send Me” or “A Change is Gonna Come.” He’s known as—straight?
That’s what I thought, but then I was reading a 2012 essay collection by the music scholar Anthony Heilbut, The Fan Who Knew Too Much, which mentions that Cooke was bisexual.
I look around, and find no other talk of Cooke being bisexual.
A 2005 biography by Daniel Wolff, You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke, describes the singer as quite a fan of women. As Wolff narrates:
“He had a seemingly bottomless appetite, and it wasn’t just sexual. He loved the companionship. He loved talking with women, trying out new songs on them; he loved just hanging out. And they, in turn, loved him.”
I flip through the 2005 biography, Dream Boogie: the Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick, and find no mention of Cooke being bisexual. He notes that Cooke had appeal for both sexes, generating a “pansexual hysteria.”
Guralnick quotes a gay record promoter in Miami saying that Cooke’s “pretty boy”…
