This CD turned out to be some of Sam Cooke's final and greatest work. This CD has such variety, from high-tempo dancec cuts like "Shake" and "Yeah Man". There are ballads like the underappreciated "Basin Street Blues" and "I'm Falling in Love". And of course, there is the GREATEST song ever written and recorded, "A Change is Gonna Come". I can listen to this song for hours on end, and every time it gives you a trembling in your stomach and makes you want to fall to your knees and cry. There are other gems on here like "Another Saturday Night", and "Meet Me At Mary's Place". This CD can be enjoyed by anyone of any age.

Great CD. Works okay with WMA format, but appears to be copy-protected and won't work with Apple's I-Tunes (IPOD). What a rip!

This Cd gives you an idea of the kind of thing that Sam Cooke would have been recording had it not been for the tragic night of Dec. 11, 1964 (a little over a week before I was born, in fact). Much of this points to the future direction of Soul Music. "Yeah man" is clearly the original version of Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music." "Ease My Troubled Mind" could be seen either as a metaphor for Sam's personal problems at the time (his son had just died) or that of the Civil Rights Movement. "It's Got the Whole World Shaking" is one of Sam's lesser-known, but not lesser tunes.

"The Riddle Song" usually brings guffaws to most modern listeners because of the classic comedy scene in "Animal House" that involves this song (where John Belushi smashes the guitar of a terrible sounding folksinger who warbles the tune), but Sam's moving rendition brings the tune back to it's original dignity.

"A Change Is Gonna Come" needs no further elaboration from me, but "Keep Moving On" sounds almost like a sequel to "Change," somewhat of a less elaborate hymn to positive thinking. I strongly recommend that you play this song before you go to work or school, it will really put you in a good frame of mind to face adversity. One can only wonder why it was never publicly released after it was recorded in 1963. But in either case, listen and enjoy.

Legal and personal problems (not the least of which was the sudden drowning death of his infant son) kept Sam Cooke out of the recording studio for the bulk of 1963. When he finally returned there near year's end, he did so with a vengeance: A goldmine of new--and very strong--original songs, along with a handful of covers done his own way for good measure. It is those recording sessions conducted over the final year of Sam's life which comprise 90% of this outstanding--and phenomenal-sounding cd.
With the exception of gospel, pretty much the full gamut of Cooke's stylistic reservoir is tapped in this collection. If, for instance, dancing's your thing, "Shake," Good Times," "It's Got The Whole World Shakin'" and "Yeah Man," among others, will take care of you. (Note: The latter of those would later serve as an obvious musical and melodic springboard for Arthur Conley's classic "Sweet Soul Music.") If you want good soul-driven blues, "There'll Be No Second Time" and "Somebody Ease My Troubled Mind" will do you. There are tender ballads ("When A Boy Falls In Love"), and New Orleans-flavored r&b ("Cousin Of Mine" and "Basin Street Blues.") There are also two songs in this collection which were herebefore unreleased, the title track, and "I'm Just A Country Boy." The underrated Cooke original "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" is one of my favorite cuts: Sounds to me like one which could have been issued as a single and had some chart success. And of course, I'd be remissed if I didn't mention Sam's greatest artistic achievement: "A Change Is Gonna Come." The song was written both in response to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" and Sam's observance of, and emotions about, the burgeoning Civil Rights movement of the time. For me, however, over all the years and countless times I've heard it, this song gives me the same feeling I get from listening to Jim Morrison's lyrics on what turned out to be his swan song, "Riders On The Storm": I can't escape the feeling that somehow or other, the composer knew his time on this earth was near its conclusion. The soaring string and horn arrangements supporting Sam's foreboding lyrics and impassioned, melodramatic vocal on this song are breathtakingly, eerily perfect for the occasion: He never made a better record, and neither have many others.
As for the sound quality on this cd, it's a pretty stunning example of what modernday technology can do to nearly 40-year-old recordings. Even if you don't have the capacity to play the hybrid super-audio layer (and I don't), the crisp, clear sound of instruments and vocals alike that you'll hear on the regular cd layer far surpasses the way you've heard any of these songs before. I'm pleased that, as a follow-up to this cd being released in the remastered super-audio format, the 2003 Cooke career-spanning single-disck compilation Portrait Of A Legend was issued the same way. After many years of inferior collections of inferior (sometimes downright crappy) sound quality, it's good to know that the work left behind by the man who invented soul music is finally receiving its just due. In closing, then: If you've got SOUL in you soul, I think you'll find this cd more than just a commodity in your collection; you'll pay it a good number of visits, and consider it money very well spent.