Anniversary of Sam Cooke’s “Live at the Harlem Square Club”

One of the greatest live albums of all time features Sam Cooke’s rousing performance on “Sam Cooke Live at Harlem Square Club.”

Sam Cooke Live at Harlem Square Club

On January 12, 1963, Sam Cooke performed in downtown Miami at the Harlem Square Club. The club was full of Cooke’s fans, and Cooke delivered one of the great live performances.  The show also resulted  in the album Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963.

In his detailed biography of Sam Cooke, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke, Peter Guralnick described the Harlem Square Club as “a big barn of a building.” He noted that the show was early in the tour when Cooke performed at the Harlem Square Club. That night, the show included a late performance that went from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. (p. 453.)

Cooke used his live gospel background for his rousing performance, which contrasted with many of his pop hits played on radio. Guralnick writes, “There was nothing soft, measured, or polite about the Sam Cooke you saw at the Harlem Square Club.”

The performance, however, was too much for the record company. RCA believed that the album would not attract the mainstream audience it wanted for Cooke. So the record was shelved and not released until 1985, long after the young singer’s tragic death in December 1964.

The album is among my top few favorite albums, live or otherwise.  Cooke’s performance of “Bring It On Home to Me” on the album jumps off the CD.  His voice makes you feel like you were there on that January Miami night, as you ride through the slow 2-minute-plus build up to the release of the opening notes of the chorus.

NPR has an interesting interview with Greg Geller, the record executive who rediscovered the tapes of the show in 1985. But the best thing to do to mark the anniversary is to put on the album, close your eyes, and let Sam Cooke take you back to a time when you believed that music could not only change your life but could transform your soul.

What is your favorite track on “Live at the Harlem Square Club”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The Gang’s All Here: Muhammad Ali & Sam Cooke
  • Sam Cooke: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
  • Favorite Live Albums: An Evening With John Denver
  • 3 a.m. Albums: Sam Cooke’s “Night Beat”
  • Spotlight On the Four Magnificent Artists Behind “Sweet Soul Music”
  • Watch Classic Music from Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show
  • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)