As a member of The Impressions, Sam Gooden had a career that spanned almost seven decades, traveled the world over several times and was inducted into the Rock & Roll and Vocal Group halls of fame. He, along with fellow Chattanoogan and Impressions member Fred Cash were invited to the Barack Obama White House, and none other than Eric Clapton asked them to sing on one of his albums.
The state of Tennessee honored the group with a Tennessee Pathways sign at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center on M.L. King Boulevard in downtown Chattanooga in 2019.
Few had a career as long, or as successful, as The Impressions and Gooden, who retired from the business earlier that year, but throughout it all, he never forgot Chattanooga, which he always called home, even when he was living in Chicago, where the Impressions became a doo-wop reality, or when he was traveling the world.
Gooden died on Wednesday in Chattanooga. He was 87.
Gooden moved to Chicago in the late ’50s to pursue music and a minor league baseball career. He eventually joined with Jerry Butler and singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield to form The Impressions, and the group would release such million sellers as “For Your Precious Love,” “Gypsy Woman,” “It’s Alright,” “Amen,” “People Get Ready” and “Choice of Colors.”