Live at the Apollo (1963 album)

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Live At The Apollo (1963)
Live album by James Brown
Released	May 1963
Recorded	October 24, 1962
Genre	R&B
Length	31:31 40:47 (Expanded Edition)
Label	King 826 Solid Smoke 8006 Polydor 843479 000171502 (Expanded Edition)
Producer	James Brown (original) Harry Weinger (Polydor reissues)
Professional reviews
Original Album: All Music Guide link Expanded Edition: All Music Guide link Blender link Pitchfork Media link Rolling Stone link

Live At The Apollo is a live album by James Brown, recorded at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and released in 1963 (see 1963 in music).

Live at the Apollo was recorded on the night of October 24, 1962 at Brown's own expense. His label, King Records, originally opposed releasing the album, believing that a live album featuring no new songs would not be profitable. The label finally relented under pressure from Brown and his manager Bud Hobgood. (It was disagreements such as this that moved Brown to begin recording for Smash Records the following year in violation of his contract with King.^[1]) To King's surprise, Live at the Apollo was an amazingly rapid seller. It spent 66 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, peaking at #2. Many record stores, especially in the southeast U. S., found themselves unable to keep up with the demand for the product, eventually ordering several cases at a time. R&B disc jockeys often would play side 1 in its entirety, pausing (usually to insert commercials) only to return to play side 2 in full as well. The side break occurred in the middle of the long track "Lost Someone".

In 2003, the album was ranked number 24 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Brown went on to record several more albums at the Apollo over the course of his career, including 1968's Live at the Apollo, Vol. II (King), 1971's Revolution of the Mind: Recorded Live at the Apollo, Vol. III (Polydor) and Live at the Apollo 1995 (Scotti Bros.).

Although not credited on the album cover or label, Brown's vocal group, The Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd, Bobby Bennett, and Lloyd Stallworth), played an important co- starring role in Live at the Apollo,and are included with Brown by M.C. Fats Gonder in the album's intro.

The entire album was covered by The Residents on their album George & James.

Contents 1 CD reissues 2 Track listing 3 Notes 4 Further reading 5 External links

[edit] CD reissues

Despite its renown and historical significance, Live at the Apollo was not reissued on CD until 1990 because the original master recordings had been misplaced and the available copies were not of a high enough quality for a satisfactory CD release. The master tapes were recovered in late 1989. A Deluxe Edition of the album featuring remastered sound and several alternate mixes was released in 2004.

[edit] Track listing

1. Introduction To James Brown and The Famous Flames (by Fats Gonder)
2. "I'll Go Crazy"
3. "Try Me"
4. "Think"
5. "I Don’t Mind"
6. "Lost Someone"
7. Medley: "Please, Please, Please"/"You’ve Got The Power"/"I Found Someone"/"Why Do You Do Me"/"I Want You So Bad"/"I Love You, Yes I Do"/"Strange Things Happen"/"Bewildered"/"Please, Please, Please"
8. "Night Train"
   • The following are bonus tracks on the 2004 Deluxe Edition:
9. "Think" (Single Mix, Radio Promo Version)
10. Medley: "I Found Someone"/"Why Do You Do Me"/"I Want You So Bad" (Single Mix)
11. "Lost Someone" (Single Mix)
12. "I’ll Go Crazy" (Single Mix)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ James Brown Biography. allmusic. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.

[edit] Further reading

• Wolk, Douglas. (2004). Live at the Apollo. New York: Continuum Books.

[edit] External links

• Official Godfather Of Soul website
• Rolling Stone's description
• Album overview at MP3.com