HE'S SO WONDERFUL
Created on 20/01/2006Latest update on 10/01/2024
Artist: Sister Jessie Mae Renfro
Author: Virginia Davis/Theodore Frye
Label: Peacock
Year: 1952
With the Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi. B-side of In That Home By And By.
Covers:
- 1956:
Soul Stirrers [with Sam Cooke (under his real name Sam Cook); record landing him nickname Mr. Wonderful]
- 1957:
Sam Cooke [as Lovable, recorded at Cosimo Matassa's place in New Orleans, with Earl Palmer on drums; what was God in the original (and in the Soul Stirrers' version) became a woman with Sam solo; Lovable was Sam Cooke's first secular recording; reason why an alias was used (Dale Cook)]
"But Sam", said the rest of the Soul Stirrers, "that sounds exactly like Wonderful!" "Exactly", said Sam, "that's the reason it will sell". Substituting 'He' for 'she', the Lord for an ordinary love interest, was a novelty not easily appreaciated within straight gospel circles; Ray Charles witnessed the same obstructions re-vamping Dorothy Love Coates's Hallelujah I Love Him So in '56
