This collection presents the work of the great Sam Cooke in the role that first brought him fame: lead singer of the Soul Stirrers, a gospel ensemble that had already helped to define a new sound in sacred recording. Cooke would go on to become a star of R&B and pop, in part by making direct connections between the devotional styles heard here and the secular romance and passion of rock and roll. The second track on this album, "Jesus Gave Me Water," recorded early in 191 was a smash hit at once amplifying the Soul Stirrers' already considerable national fame and making a new star out of a young Sam Cooke. Throughout the early '50s, in the recordings featured here - and with the occasional addition of drums and guitars - Cooke and the Soul Stirrers enjoyed a degree of success paralleling, in the gospel world, the kind of adulation soon to be enjoyed by teen-pop stars in rock and roll. The later tracks also feature a number of originals from Cooke, who was rapidly maturing, in the public eye as a songwriter, singer and charismatic performer. These 20 recordings return us to the crucial half-decade when Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers made gospel history!