Sam Cooke: Live At The Harlem Square Club [GROOVE CLASSICS]

Why you'll love it

This remastered edition captures Cooke's full set from January 12, 1963. Rolling Stone placed it on The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and AllMusic called it one of the greatest live soul albums ever.

This edition

• Remastered
• 180g vinyl

About the album

RCA had a very particular picture of Sam Cooke in 1963, smooth, suited and ready for the supper clubs, and this tape didn't match it. On a warm January night at the Harlem Square Club in Miami's Overtown, packed with fans from his gospel days, Cooke played a louder, rougher, sweatier show, and the label quietly put the recordings in the vault.

Listen and you can hear why it scared them. Cooke works the room like a preacher, rolling from "Feel It (Don't Fight It)" into "Chain Gang," "Cupid" and "It's All Right," then whipping up "Twistin' the Night Away," "Bring It On Home to Me" and a closing "Having a Party" with the crowd singing every word. As RCA executive Gregg Geller put it, this was the down-home, gut-bucket show he played for his own audience, a long way from his pop image.

Geller found the tapes in 1985, and that year the album placed No. 11 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll and No. 7 on NME's albums of the year. It sat in the vault for 22 years, which is a long time to keep a party waiting; judging by the noise, nobody went home.

Also at Kops: more Sam Cooke on vinyl · browse Classic Soul

Tracklist

Listen

On RCA / Music On Vinyl (cat# MOVLP071), a reissue of the 1985 live album.