38. Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 (1985)

1. Feel It

2. Chain Gang *

3. Cupid

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

5. Twistin' the Night Away

6. Somebody Have Mercy

7. Bring It On Home to Me *

8. Nothing Can Change This Love

9. Having a Party

A+

No, I haven't skipped twenty years of albums. The Book cheats on this one - this album was recorded in 1963 but it wasn't released until 1985. I guess they felt it benefited from being placed in its proper context, even though no-one heard this back when it was recorded excepted for the people present at the Harlem Square Club and a few nervous executives at RCA. 

I'm not complaining, though. This is a truly brilliant album. As someone whose total exposure to Sam Cooke was his hits - "Chain Gang", "Cupid", and "A Change is Gonna Come" - this was something of a revelation. I mean, those are all fine songs, but they don't really prepare you for the astonishing energy that Cooke displays on stage. It's a testament to the brilliance of this album that I can even stand it, honestly - I used to work at a shopping centre where every day a busker would come and play a medley of "Chain Gang" and "Cupid" in a soft, vaguely reggaeish style to the point where I was ready to walk up and sock the guy with my mop handle. Truly, there's no substitute for the original.

This album is nothing but high points, but the really special songs are the ones where Cooke works the crowd up and gets them to sing along with him. Medleys are usually something to worry about, but "It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons" is a beautiful one-two punch where Cooke starts feeding the audience the lines and getting them to sing the song. It's wonderful. And he repeats the trick on "Bring It One Home to Me", creating a wonderful sense of energy and a truly joyful atmosphere where you can really appreciate just how great a time everyone is having. Cooke also shows himself a master of stage banter, making jokes and providing clever lead-ins to the songs that contribute to the warmth and fun of the album.

Of particular interest to music nerds, this is probably the first album on this list that can be said to contain soul music as we understand it today - in the 1960s smooth style of Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin, a heady mix of gospel, R&B and pop that finally broke free from its 1950s roots. I guess that's why they called Sam Cooke the "King of Soul".

Anyway, if you're at all fond of soul music, or live albums, or 60s pop, then I can't recommend this enough. It's unfortunate that Cooke was shot dead under contentious circumstances less than two years after its release, as he was obviously a phenomenal talent. It's unfortunate that the circumstances surrounding his death have tainted his legacy - either he tried to rape a girl and then went on a rampage after she fled, or he hired a prostitute and lost his shit after she robbed him, but either way he was gunned down by a motel owner under unfortunate circumstances. I don't go in for conspiracies so I'm going to say it seems to have been one or the other. Still, the music is what matters, and this album is nothing but great music. I probably shouldn't even have brought that up.