Cooke's Tour

Background

As Keen's marketing was limited, Sam Cooke began to shop around to other labels in February 1960. Interest was immediate from labels such as Atlantic and Capitol, but Cooke signed with Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore at RCA Victor, who offered a $100,000 advance. RCA Victor had previously signed Jesse Belvin, Della Reese and the Isley Brothers, and Peretti and Creatore were set on making Cooke an international album artist.

Cooke's Tour, recorded on March 2 and 3, 1960, is an "adventurous travelogue" that explores various territories around the world. Glen Osser wrote arrangements and conducted the album’s orchestra, which was a R&B rhythm section and a fifteen-piece string ensemble. Cooke was closest to the album’s final track, "The House I Live In," as he had just moved into his dream home in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.

Track listing

All songs arranged and conducted by Glen Osser.

Side one

1. "Far Away Places" (Joan Whitney Kramer, Alex Kramer)  – 3:28
2. "Under Paris Skies" (Hubert Giraud, Kim Gannon, Jean Dréjac)  – 3:10
3. "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)" (Jimmy Kennedy, Michael Carr)  – 3:10
4. "Bali Ha'i" (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II)  – 3:17
5. "The Coffee Song (They've Got An Awful Lot of Coffee in Brazil)" (Bob Hilliard, Richard Miles)  – 2:02
6. "Arrivederci, Roma (Goodbye to Rome)" (Carl Sigman, Renato Rascel)  – 2:47

Side two

1. "London by Night" (Carroll Coates)  – 3:34
2. "Jamaica Farewell" (Irving Burgie)  – 2:32
3. "Galway Bay" (Dr. Arthur Colahan)  – 3:00
4. "Sweet Leilani" (Harry Owens)  – 2:48
5. "The Japanese Farewell Song" (Hasegawa Yoshida, Freddy Morgan)  – 2:57
6. "The House I Live In" (Lewis Allen, Earl Robinson)  – 3:19

Personnel

All credits adapted from The RCA Albums Collection (2011) liner notes.