❤️

This Album is live. It was at the very beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Sam Cooke a crooner, walks into the heat of a Florida club and he demands the attention of the audience. He couldn't even stay in a hotel. He couldn't drink from the water fountains or eat at the restaurants...but what he did do was capture the times. The desperation for freedom, for equality, for a voice. An AMAZING ALBUM!!! Just amazing.

Incredible live performance by one the most talented and charismatic artists of our time. There is so much fire from this recording. Hard to believe RCA didn't release this until the mid 1980s.

From the opening song to the last, I can feel the heart and soul of Sam Cooke flowing through the microphone. No matter where you are in the world or what year you are listening to this live recording, Sam draws you into The Harlem Square Club and you feel as though you are right there in the audience. As I listen to this album over 50 years after its recording I'm "Having A Party" too. I was born 16 years after this night. I wish was alive to witness his life and career. With this album I get a glimpse of what that would've been like to experience. Sam Cooke is one of the greatest artist of all time.

He was one of the greatest singers of his time and great performer it sounds! He can never be touched! I was born way after his time but I love his voice and his music....

I am generally not a live album kind of guy. So many musicians just aren't as good live as they are in the studio. But Sam Cooke is truly AMAZING live. As good as Cooke's studio albums are (and they are great) it is surprising how much better this live recording is. This is what you think of when you think of Sam Cooke. That raspy golden voice. The amazing energy between him and the crowd. Some of the things that they file off in the studio are present here. This live album is one of the most influencial recordings ever. Listen to Twist and Shout and Having a Party and you can clearly hear Rod Stewart. If you like music PERIOD...you owe it to yourself to purchase this live recording and listen to it. Over and Over again.

What a way to kick off 1963 and now it's a timeless live gem! Sam Cooke's energy and his connection with the audience is in evidence here to say the least. Bring It on Home to Me and Nothing Can Change the Love I Have for You are an especially involving ride.

One of the top five live soul albums ever. You will dance.

They say this one may be better than 'At the Copa'! Is that possible?!?! NO!

I won't say "of all time," because, who am I kidding, I don't have extensive experience with albums, not to mention live albums. Even when I'm talking about movies, where I have vastly more experience than almost anyone I've ever met or spoken with before, I will not yet go so far as "best ever," if only because there is no end to the lists of masterful art being made in the world. ANYWAY... Have you ever found yourself saying, "Soul music? What would I want with soul music? That's just many different albums which all sound the same, music which hasn't changed since the 70s, which all sound like a stereotypical black man's voice trying to croon women into seduction." Well, I found myself saying that, until I realized what soul is, until I realized that it was actually invented by Ray Charles in the 50s, and perfected by Sam Cooke ten years later. And I do mean perfected. There is no voice like Sam Cooke, there is no stage personality like Sam Cooke, and it goes beyond voice and personality-- it goes into philosophy. Several of the hits, which are awesome but sound so typical and poppy in their original release, sound astounding here. "Chain Gang," "Cupid" and "Twistin' the Night Away" sounded like I was hearing them for the first time, like I finally got what Sam was really going for, and it's intense. With Chain Gang, Sam Cooke was taking a very old tradition, the work song, and adding an unprecedented pop-soul flavor to it. You really feel the sadness of the men on the chain gang, but you also feel intense happiness, as if, just maybe, they are hearing this song and feeling this song too. Bring it on home to me is actually, though it's not labeled this way, a rendition of "You Send Me" which then blends into Bring It On Home To Me, and it's probably the best I've heard of both songs, which is saying a lot, because I am obsessed with Bring It On Home, and actually I originally didn't find Sam's to be my favorite version. Imagine, the best Sam Cooke album, and one of the best albums of all time, and it doesn't even have "A Change is Gonna Come"? Yes, you have to buy this album.