Bert's emotion-charged songs and Sol's gospel delivery was a marriage made in heaven.

"[11] Although Burke recognized Berns's skill for crafting hit records, he rejected two Berns compositions, "Hang on Sloopy" (later recorded by the McCoys), and "A Little Bit of Soap", a recent hit for the Jarmels.

Burke explained in 2004: "I felt a little unsafe about it, because they were pushing me in an ethnic market, so why would I want to say that (about soap) to my people?

[12] The personnel on the Solomon Burke recording included Leon Cohen on alto sax, Jesse Powell on tenor sax, Hank Jones on piano, Robert Mosely on organ, Phil Kraus on vibes, Don Arnone, Al Caiola, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Everett Barksdale on guitars; Art Davis on bass, and Gary Chester on drums.

[16] In "Cry to Me", and in his "most popular recordings from 1962 onward, elements of the African-American folk-preaching style", which incorporated "the fusion of speech and song", "the use of repetition or elongation for emphasis", and the improvisation of "hollers and vocal melismas", the "flowers and curlicues of gospel singing",[17] are salient.