I was actually planning to play Africa by Toto tonight, but a couple of things changed my mind.  No worries, though … I’ll definitely be playing it soon, for it’s a song that … speaks to me, that I really like.  Instead, I figured some Sam Cooke would be just the thing to get me over the holiday weariness that seems to be stronger as we get older.  Nothin’ quite like Mr. Sam!

Who doesn’t love the voice of Sam Cooke?  Sam Cooke wrote this song, but the original intent wasn’t for him to sing it.  Cooke’s producers had asked him to write a song for a girl they had seen on a Perry Como TV show — but once they heard her sing, they kept “Cupid” for Cooke himself.  She must’ve really botched it!

It was Cooke’s idea to drop in the sound of an arrow being fired “straight…