R.I.P.: Sam Gooden, Co-Founder Of Soul Group The Impressions

Sam Gooden (September 2, 1934 – August 4, 2022)

Sam Gooden, an original member of the Impressions, the influential soul group that expressed the ideals of the civil rights movement of the 1960s through such songs as “People Get Ready” and “We’re a Winner,” died Aug. 4 at his home in Chattanooga, Tenn. He was 87.

The cause was a heart attack, reports The Boston Globe.

Starting out as a doo-wop quintet fronted by singer Jerry Butler, the Impressions recorded their breakthrough hit, “For Your Precious Love,” in 1958. They garnered their widest acclaim a few years later, after shrinking to a trio featuring singer-songwriter and guitarist Curtis Mayfield and two singers, Mr. Gooden and Fred Cash.

The Impressions' upbeat style, which became known as "the Chicago sound" for the city where they recorded, was as pervasive on the radio as the Motown sound coming out of Detroit. The group put 39 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, ranging from the haunting love ballad "Gypsy Woman" (1961) to the rallying cry "Keep on Pushing" (1964).

Their impassioned delivery - whether retooling a traditional spiritual like "Amen" (1964) or creating a new one such as Mayfield's widely covered "People Get Ready" (1965) - gave listeners hope at a time of social upheaval.

Social concerns typified the Impressions' lyrics. "We're a Winner" (1967), an anthem of Black upward mobility, featured the lines, "We'll just keep on pushin' / Like your leaders tell you to / At last that blessed day has come / And I don't care where you come from." And while a love song like Mayfield's "Minstrel and Queen" might invoke romantic visions of medieval times, the songwriter said he intended it as a metaphor of interracial love.

Though Mayfield, a falsetto tenor, typically sang lead, he traded lines and verses with Gooden, a baritone and bass who was featured on songs such as “Woman’s Got Soul” (1965) and the Impressions’ biggest seller, “It’s All Right” (1963). Mr. Gooden also fronted the group on the Mayfield ballad “Aware of Love” and their rendition of “I Wanna Be Around,” popularized by Tony Bennett.

Samuel Gooden was born Sept. 2, 1934, in Chattanooga. His father was a minister, and his mother was a missionary who sang with his sisters in a gospel quartet.