Sam Cooke – You Send Me

You don’t hear voices like this every day. The soulful voice the man had was breathtaking.

The songwriting credit for the song has Charles “LC” Cooke, who was Cooke’s brother. Some say he was mistakenly credited and that Sam Cooke wrote it. It’s also said that Sam Cooke wrote the song but gave the credit to his brother because he didn’t want his publisher to get profits off the song. That is the story I believe. This song is credited to Sam Cooke with The Bumps Blackwell Orchestra.

*The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 on the R&B Charts, and #29 in the UK in 1957. Sam Cooke is one of the artists that you have to think…what could have been if he hadn’t had such a tragic death at such a young age… Not that he didn’t have a very successful career to that point. He had 20 Top Ten Hits, 29 Top 40 Hits, and 4 Number 1 hits in the R&B Charts.

In the Billboard 100, he had 34 songs in the top 100 and 4 top ten hits. He died when he was only 33 years old. I would suggest reading All Things Thriller’s post about Sam Cooke’s death.

*I looked up the chart position for this song. In Wiki and a Billboard database, it has number 1. I go to Billboard’s site and it doesn’t list the song as even charting… which is crazy. From what I’ve read…the charts changed that year in Billboard…maybe that was part of this. The B side was Summertime.

Art Garfunkel: “I must have sung ‘You Send Me’ to myself walking up and down stairwells at least a thousand times. It was on the charts right when I was having my first little success with Paul Simon as Tom and Jerry. I was just a kid, calling on radio stations for promotional purposes, and all I heard was ‘You Send Me.’ Sam was great to sing along with. He was my hero.”

You Send Me

Darling, you send me
I know you send me
Darling, you send me
Honest, you do, honest, you do
Honest, you do, whoa

You thrill me
I know you, you, you thrill me
Darling, you, you, you, you thrill me
Honest, you do

At first I thought it was infatuation
But, woo, it’s lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To marry you and take you home, whoa

You, you, you, you send me
I know you send me
I know you send me
Honest you do

Whoa-oh-oh, whenever I’m with you
I know, I know, I know when I’m near you
Mm hmm, mmm hmm, honest, you do, honest, you do
Whoa-oh-oh, I know-oh-oh-oh

I know, I know, I know, when you hold me
Whoa, whenever you kiss me
Mm hmm, mm hmm, honest you do

At first I thought it was infatuation
But, woo, it’s lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To marry you and take you home

I know, I know, I know you send me
I know you send me
Whoa, you, you, you, you send me
Honest you do

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

21 thoughts on “Sam Cooke – You Send Me”

  2. Incredible voice, great song. He wrote one of the most important songs (of the 60s, if not ever) with “A Change is Gonna Come”, a song that still gives me chills 60 years later. That song was enough to be the title and theme of a book, “A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race, and the Soul of America” by Craig Werner (which itself was the documentation of a university course).

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  5. Quality song no matter who got credit for it. The Billboard book lists it as 3 weeks #1 on the Hot 100 and 2 at #1 as Best selling, so I don’t know why their website isn’t reflecting that.
    Wi-Fi’s out here today, so trying to work around from phone…

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    1. Oh that sucks…I can’t imagine checking everything from a phone…I only do it if I’m out somewhere…
      Yea I didn’t get the site either…it must have been on the pre-100 list…or the one that took over. Maybe Randy can lend something.

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  6. Such a classic song. I”m with you that Sam wrote the song and put his brothers name on it, not an uncommon occurrence. It was changed on subsequent releases back to Sam’s name. I think you have discovered a mistake by Billboard’s data base. They were starting to phase charts out at the time as the Hot 100 started in 1958 but that should not have affected this song. They certainly have songs older than this listed. I have checked that data base a thousand times and never run across this. Not that I didn’t believe you but I checked myself and the song is not there, crazy stuff.

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    1. Oh I totally get it…that is why I left the link…for you. I wanted to see if I was missing something obvious…I didn’t want to go by just Wiki but when I found the other site saying the same thing…I knew something was wrong.

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  9. Your opening sentence just about sums it up: You don’t hear voices like this every day.

    Some vocalists simply have vocals that are very special. Sam Cooke was one of them. While his songs are old by now, many have a timeless quality to them, and it’s in big part because of his beautiful soulful singing. I can listen to Sam Cooke any day!

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    1. That might be it…I don’t know…it did go to #1 on some chart though lol….but the other billboard site does have it listed…I think it’s a mistake on their site..

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