Not Just a Sam Cooke Wannabe: Discovering the Real Leon Bridges
I remember the first time I heard Leon Bridges. Strangely, it wasn’t his debut album Coming Home (2015), despite its success and Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album in 2016.
It was in 2018 when a track from his second album, Good Thing, randomly popped up—and I was hooked. I became obsessed for months. Songs like Bad Bad News, Forgive You, Beyond, and If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be) are seriously impressive. I started asking people around me if they knew about Leon, but nobody had heard of him, and his songs weren’t getting radio play. I began to wonder if something was off with his marketing—this guy was too good to be flying under the radar.
Eventually, I went back and listened to his debut album. It’s great too, but sonically quite different. The Sam Cooke influence is unmistakable—maybe even too strong. It reminded me of when Ray Charles first started and sounded a bit too much like Nat King Cole.
In contrast, Good Thing leans more into pop production, which, to me, better complements Leon’s songwriting. It feels more personal, more authentic.
A few years later, something shifted. Tracks from Coming Home started appearing in adverts, and the songs from Good Thing seemed to slowly make their way into people’s lives. I’ve even heard Beyond played at weddings and used as a first dance.
In 2021, Leon released his third album, Gold-Diggers Sound. While it didn’t hit me the same way Good Thing did, that might just be because I’m still stuck on that 2018 record.
Leon Bridges Tunes | Related Pages
Beyond | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Beyond by Leon Bridges using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| G (C/G) | G (C/G) |
Don’t wanna get ahead of myself, feeling things I’ve never felt…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: Beyond (Leon Bridges) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Leon Bridges on the web
