IFLTS: 'Touch the Hem of His Garment,' Sam Cooke

'Touch the Hem of His Garment,' Sam Cooke
From 1956

I was born three months premature and deaf, with minimal chance of ever gaining my hearing. On Easter Day four months later, the organs rang out at church, I let out a cry and my hearing was miraculously restored. This early childhood experience and years of worrying about my hearing led to my total obsession with music -- constantly seeking out new discoveries with an insatiable hunger, like an archeologist on a never ending dig, always knowing that hearing was a privilege, not a right, and could easily be lost.

'Touch the Hem of His Garment' by Sam Cooke became the Rosetta Stone of my early searching, a song that to this day, I can't listen to without tearing up. The tears are not of sadness but tears of unexplainable joy, as the plaintive yet comforting wail of Cooke's voice and his innate soulfulness transcends traditional descriptions, and truly brings the listener to a higher, more soulful universe.

I first fell in love with Cooke through his pop songs, weaned on a steady diet of 'Chain Gang,' 'Another Saturday Night,' 'Wonderful World' and 'Bring it on Home to Me.' However, Cooke's voice really shines in his gospel songs, where he fully unleashes his unbridled emotions. The lore goes that Sam Cooke was on his way to a recording studio, completely unprepared, when he picked up a Bible and read a passage from the Book of Matthew, creating 'Touch the Hem of His Garment' on the spot -- a musical miracle in and of itself.

I feel that at the end of the day we are all looking for our own miracles, and every time I listen to this song it feels like a rebirth. I defy anyone to listen and not break out into goosebumps.

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