Initially recorded on January 12, , to be released as a live album titled One Night Stand , the concert album was not released until RCA Victor , at the time, viewed the album as too gritty and raw and possibly damaging to his pop image, and quietly kept the recordings in their archive. The album is generally considered among the best live albums by contemporary music critics, [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and has been ranked in "best-of" music lists, including on Rolling Stone 's list of The Greatest Albums of All Time.
The Harlem Square Club was a small downtown nightspot in Miami's historically African-American neighborhood of Overtown , and was packed with the singer's most devoted fans from his days singing gospel. In , executive Gregg Geller discovered the tapes and quickly issued Live at the Harlem Square Club, that year.
But once he became a pop artist, he had a certain mainstream image to protect," Geller said in And he was doing a different kind of show β a much more down-home, down-to-earth, gut-bucket kind of show than what he would do for his pop audience.
Three mixes of the album have been released. The original mix contains a louder audience response, creating a "claustrophobic, frenzied power". A new mix created for the box set, The Man Who Invented Soul , turns the audience elements down, cleaning up Cooke's vocals as well as the music. However, pressings of the versions have a defect.
Around the mark of "Twistin' the Night Away", the song skips. It is not known why this defect is present. Live at the Harlem Square Club, has generally been considered among the best live LPs ever released. Steve Leggett for AllMusic feels that "Not only is this one of the greatest live soul albums ever released, it also reveals a rougher, rawer, and more immediate side to Sam Cooke that his singles only hinted at, good as they were [ It is essential listening in any version.
