Sam Cooke - One Night Stand! Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club (1963)

Note: My CD is the 2005 re-release.

Simply put: this is one of the best live recordings of all time. When you listen to Cooke sing, you can hear the passion and feeling that made him The King of Soul. When he sings a song like Cupid, he makes you feel the emotions that the lyrics convey - he's so in love with a girl, that he's praying to Cupid for help. Listening to this makes you realize that nobody sings like that anymore. This CD is so good, it demands your attention. It is difficult to do anything else but listen to the music for 38 minutes.

Press of the time:

• Record Mirror (★★★★½): "Talk about buried treasure"
• CashBox: "some electrifying cuts"
• Billboard: "gritty, sweaty soul revue sound"
• Rolling Stone: "an unusually vivid experience"
• Stereo Review: "an important release"

In The Village Voice's annual 'Pazz & Jop' critic's poll, this album placed a very respectable #11 for the year. In the latest list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list, this album ranked at #240. It was also included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005): "With a joyful radiancy, this posthumous document stands alone in Cooke's output."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #134

Tracks: I can't view this as having separate tracks. It needs to be listened to as if it were one long track.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: discovering this release through my friends at Best Roof Talk Ever.