This song is considered by many historians of soul music to be the founding, or at least definitive soul song, as it provides the formula that is still popular today. Cooke's live version of this song that he performed in Miami, from the album Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, can be seen as his personal vision of what soul music should be, owing to the texture and emotion conveyed through his vocals that night, and that were probably standard in Cooke's near-nightly shows in primarily black clubs.
Covers
The most significant covers of the song include the hit versions by
Lou Rawls, who sang background vocals on the original song, recorded his own charting version in 1970.
In the United Kingdom, The Faces released this song as part of a medley with "You Send Me" and charted it on the UK Singles Chart at #7 as a double A-side with "Farewell". Rod Stewart later covered this song as a medley with Cookes "You Send Me" on his solo album Smiler.
Van Morrison's highly acclaimed, 1974 live album, It's Too Late to Stop Now contained his personally relevant version (he was going through a divorce battle at the time) of this song, as performed in concert.[1][2]
Britt Daniel, lead vocalist of indie-rock band Spoon, recorded a cover of this song for the Portland, OR based covers compilation Bridging the Distance.
Secrets Between Sailors has not put their version on one of their albums, but has been a crowd favorite encore at the end of many of their shows, with Kyle Burkett's fervored vocals, and the unique version of the songs melody played through pounding bass lines by Andrew Maxson
