Sam Cooke Records "A Change Is Gonna Come"

Date: December 21, 1963

After hearing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," Cooke wanted to write a song about race with equal impact. He'd encountered racial turbulence in the year prior to "Change"'s release, when he and his tourmates tried to book a "whites only" hotel and were arrested for disturbing the peace. That incident was a key inspiration behind "Change," and the song naturally became a massive success in the black community upon release.