Announcement

This blog is no longer being updated. Please visit Sounds Of The Soul (3rd edition)here Go To Sounds Of The Soul's Third Edition!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Simms Twins -- Shake It On Up

The Sims Twins had the best-selling record that was released on Sam Cooke's own label Sar. "A Sam Cooke composition, "Soothe Me," first hit the charts in October 1961 and stayed there for 22 weeks, Reaching #4. Of course, the Sims Twins had been gospel singers. They started out in a 1arger family gospel group, the Sims Brothers Sextet, who recorded two obscure records for Dootone in 1952 (so obscure that no copies are known to survive of either record!). The group was active only around Los Angeles and never did much traveling.
When they broke up, the youngest members, Bobby and Ken Sims (who really are twins), started singing as a duo in churches. It was there that Sam Cooke heard them and convinced them to come and do same background singing. They went in the studios to sing background on "Cupid." Then he was working on "Soothe Me," a song he wrote, and he again wanted them to sing backup. When he was listening to a studio tape of their singing on it, he never did record his voice over theirs as he originally intended, and issued it as the record.he Sims Twins had the best-selling record that was released on Sar. A Sam Cooke composition, "Soothe Me," first hit the charts in October 1961 and stayed there for 22 weeks, Reaching #4. Of course, the Sims Twins had been gospel singers. They started out in a 1arger family gospel group, the Sims Brothers Sextet, who recorded two obscure records for Dootone in 1952 (so obscure that no copies are known to survive of either record!). The group was active only around Los Angeles and never did much traveling."
(http://www.songsofsamcooke.com/sar_records.htm)


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Sam recording and releasing the Sims Twins' version of "Soothe Me" without their knowledge was always a funny story. Thanks for featuring them here.

Erik Greene
Author, "Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story From His Family's Perspective"
www.OurUncleSam.com

Raggedy said...

Thanks for your comment and the link.
I never knew about this until I read the article. I guess there's always I new surprise waiting around the corner.