One Night Stand: Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 [Vinyl]

Sam Cooke | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (October 14, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B001EOOR8M
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,214 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Soul Twist/Introduction

2. Feel It (Don't Fight It)

3. Chain Gang

4. Cupid

5. Medley: It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons

6. Twistin' the Night Away

7. Somebody Have Mercy

8. Bring It on Home to Me

9. Nothing Can Change This Love

10. Having a Party

Editorial Reviews

This is the real Sam Cooke, doing a sweaty, raspy soulful set at the Harlem Square Club in North Miami, FL, on January 12th, 1963, backed by King Curtis and his band, a handful of local musicians, and Cooke's resident sidemen, guitarist Clifford White and drummer Albert "June" Gardner. To put it simply, it's one of the greatest soul records ever cut!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy Remastering of Essential Music, December 12, 2005

By 

David A. Zapolsky (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Night Stand: Live at the Harlem Square Club 63 (Audio CD)

After reading all the reviews, my wife bought me both the old and the new version of this CD, along with Peter Guralnik's new biography, "Dream Boogie," for the holidays. (I had the old version already on vinyl.) So I've had an opportunity to listen to both versions side by side.

It seems clear in the new version that the primary goal of the producer was to bring Sam Cooke's voice as far out in front of the mix as possible. The good news is that this goal is accomplished. The details of his voice are much more exposed, as if we were listening to the microphone closest to him, and one can indeed hear more -- his phrasing is clearer, the rawness is more noticable, even a few missteps are much more evident. (It sounds like he starts the wrong song at the beginning of Cupid, and then covers by stopping himself and talking to the audience. But the new version makes the muff, and his evident amusement, even more clear than the original.)

The bad news is that, as some reviews point out, making the lead vocal more prominent obscures the crowd at times and, less forgivably, King Curtis's saxophone and the rest of the band.

The easiest way of characterizing the difference between the two versions is that the original is probably closer to the way the show would have sounded if you had been in the audience at the back of the hall. The new version is what you would have heard at a mixing board through your headphones, turning Sam's mike all the way up. (Not that there was one necessarily at the time.)

Which one is better? The differences are subtle, and ultimately you can't go wrong with either -- this is an essential recording for any well rounded collection. For me, though, this recording is most valuable as a document of Sam Cooke's voice and live performing style, rather than his interaction with the crowd or what the band happened to be doing at the time. (You can find much better King Curtis recordings elsewhere anyway.) So I give the nod to the remastered version.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars They Ruined the Greatest Live Album of All Time., March 31, 2009

By 

fan - See all my reviews

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This review is from: One Night Stand: Live at the Harlem Square Club 63 (Audio CD)

The original 'Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club' was the greatest live album of all time. Listening to it you feel jealous of everyone who was there. Never has a singer and and his band his audience been so in sync with each other. The crowd singalong with 'I love you for sentimental reasons' is as magical a recording as exists. The call and answer 'let me hear you say yeah!' on 'Bring it on home' is as exciting as music gets. No wonder the women in the audience are screaming to what sounds like the point of orgasm.

But this new mastered version takes all the audience vibes out. And it kills the amazingly hot sax counterpoints of King Curtis. Now it's just another CD. Man if aint broke don't fix it. But they did and they ruined it.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where is the freakin' audience!!, September 21, 2005

By 

C. Fields "Vebrero Muetista" (Jackson, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Night Stand: Live at the Harlem Square Club 63 (Audio CD)

This remastering does a good job of accentuating the instruments and bringing the vocal more foreground but the audience is almost absent from this recording. If you want to hear the true power of this concert in all its glory buy the original copy.