Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963

33⅓ Main Series #158

by Colin Fleming

Shelved for over 20 years, Sam Cooke's Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 , stands alongside Otis Redding's Live in Europe and James Brown's Live at the Apollo as one of the finest live soul albums ever made. It also reveals a musical, spiritual, emotional, and social journey played out over one night on the stage of a sweaty Miami club, as Cooke made music that encapsulated everything he had ever cut, channeling forces that would soon birth “A Change is Gonna Come,” the most important soul song ever written.

This book covers Cooke's days with the Soul Stirrers, the gospel unit that was inventing a strand of soul in the 1950s, and continues on to his string of hit singles as a solo artist that reveal far more about this complex man and the complex music he was always fashioning. A writer and an agent of social change, he absorbed the teachings of Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan while reconciling his own identity and what fans expected of him. Fleming explores how this towering soul artist came to reconcile so many disparate elements on a Florida stage on a winter night in 1963-a stage that extended well into the future, beyond Cooke's own life, beyond the 1960s, and into a perpetual here-and-now. Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 will resonate so long as we all have need to look into ourselves and square our differences and become more human, and more connected with others in our humanity.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2021

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

22 Years Later: One Night in Miami
A review of the Bloomsbury Academic paperback (2021).

This was the exact opposite response that the higher-ups had at RCA when they heard what Cooke and his all-Black band had wrought. They didn't just shelve this sucker for its through-the-roof-quotient of denuded, raw, real humanness - they left it in the vaults until 1985, when presumably a marketing person said "Might be safe enough now..."

This is among the top 33 1/3 books that I've read to date. Writer Colin Fleming, who has many other books to his credit, was an obsessive fan since his early years and provides both a career overview and a track by track analysis with several diversions into Sam Cooke's other major touchstone recordings.


The front covers of the 1985 (left) and the 2005 (right) issues of "Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963." Images sourced from Discogs.

The live recording with a raucous crowd and a rocking band highlighted by the saxophone of King Curtis and Cooke's impromptu lyric additions makes for a thrilling listening experience well over 60 years later. Many of Cooke's own written hits are included such as Chain Gang, Cupid, Twisting the Night Away and Bring It On Home to Me. The album is bookended with the top party songs Feel It (Don't Fight It) and Having a Party.


A poster advertising Sam Cooke at the Harlem Square Club, Miami on January 12, 1963 which noted that the show would be recorded live for a future album. Image sourced from Random Pixels.

I added some of my favourite excerpts in the GR status updates below or here if you are reading outside of GR.
This is a superb appreciation of one of the top soul & pop recordings of all time.

Soundtrack
You can listen to original 1985 issue of Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 on YouTube here or on Spotify here.

The slightly expanded re-issue from 2005 adds about 30 seconds of King Curtis' Soul Twist before Sam Cooke is introduced. You can listen to that version on YouTUbe here or on Spotify here.

You can listen to the full 1962 studio recording of King Curtis' Soul Twist here.

Trivia and Links
Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 was published as part of the Bloomsbury Academic 33 1/3 series of books surveying significant record albums, primarily in the rock and pop genres. The series was originally published by Continuum starting in 2003. The GR Listopia for the 33 1/3 series is incomplete with only 179 books listed as of August 2025. For an up-to-date list see Bloomsbury Publishing with 204* books listed for the Main Series as of August 2025. The Main Series does not include the 33 1/3 books in the Global series which focuses on music from the regions of Europe, Oceania, Japan, Brazil, South Asia and Africa. You can search through those at the World Music listing here.

* This counts the not yet published Violent Femmes's Violent Femmes as #204.

[Polestar72 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big fan of Sam Cooke since my dad played Sam's Copa album for me when I was seven or eight (it was his favorite). Have read a couple of Cooke biographies but never felt as close to the man as I did reading this book from Fleming. He comes alive and is so much more than the black and white - pun sort of intended - singer we usually get. I like how Fleming recognizes Cooke as a composer and a composer who also writes through singing. There were a lot of interesting tidbits I never knew but more than anything I thought like I was reading some huge adventure epic. At times - especially near the end - I could actually feel my pulse going faster. It was like reading a great movie if you know what I mean. My dad passed years ago and I am not sure he knew about the Harlem Square Club album but it also made me feel close to my dad because he would love this book just like I did. Highly recommended.

[captainessbroadside · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transcendent piece of music criticism. But that is limiting. I don't know how to put it, because this is so new. I've never read a music book like this one. Any nonfiction book like this one. I learned to think about Sam Cooke in ways I never have, and I am someone who has listened to Sam Cooke for a lot of years. But it's a book of ideas, of verbal poetry, of a knowledge of art, music, Cooke, soul music, and life, music history, the fascinating way certain things overlap, and that also means you'll never hear this album the same way again. But it also doesn't matter if you've never heard it. Or even if you don't, which sounds crazy to say. You won't, I dare say it, even think the same way again. I was crying on the last page, it moved me so much in its beautiful rhythms and how it all builds to a glorious final note. I wanted to go out and hug someone. In this awful world, I felt hope. This writer makes me come alive, no matter what he is writing. A different way each time. Check out the album as well and play it loud.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deservedly ecstatic reflection on one of the truly great live albums in the context of Sam Cooke’s overall career, but also one that is somewhat laboriously worded, with Fleming’s thesaurus seemingly exhausted in his tireless quest for unusual and often needlessly pretentious adjectives.

[Ric · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could go back in time and see three concerts, in no particular order they’d be: The Beatles at Shea in 1965, Sinatra’s last concert in 1995, and Sam Cooke at the Harlem Square Club in 1963. It’s a legendary performance with an equally incredible live album, and reading about it was a joy. This book not only did an amazing job outlining the set list and transitions between the songs, but other parts of Cooke’s life and musical career. The last chapter talked quite a bit about “A Change is Gonna Come” as well, which I consider one of the greatest songs of all time. If you’re not a fan of Sam Cooke, go listen to him. And after you’re done pick up this book.

[Dan Wickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fleming's work here goes above what others in this 33 1/3 series have done in the past. Not simply music criticism (though it's fantastic in that aspect alone), he captures Cooke, the time of the recording, how it affected the music industry, how it hit people that were there, how it hits people that can hear it properly after all these years. The writing is flawless in how it puts forth its ideas clearly. It's a book that should be read by anybody interested in music criticism, but also to anybody that's interested in the type of non-fiction book that focuses intently on a subject, and does so in a manner that it doesn't matter what the reader's interest of the subject was prior to picking up the book--it's rock solid from that point forward.

[Aaron Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Cooke's "Live At The Harlem Square Club" has been one of my favorite albums since I was a teen. The album finally gets the brilliant analysis it deserves in Colin Fleming's new 33 1/3 treatment. Fleming goes deep into Cooke's artistry and his invaluable group—the comparison here to Andrew Hill's '60s Blue Note albums is totally fitting. Fleming also clearly explains how Cooke is on par with artists from throughout literature and film. Orson Welles would be thrilled at the comparison to Cooke, especially the way that Fleming writes it.

[Johndmusok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished my second read on this book and loved it! This is a book like no other of its kind. I’ve always enjoyed listening to Sam’s music but after reading this book I have a new interest in his music and life. It was an amazing experience as with all of Flemings works.

[QueenBNYC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book about Sam Cooke. Interesting but not boring like some of the other 33-1/3 books. Beautifully written.

[Abe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding treatise on American history, the Civil Rights Movement, the history of soul music, the wonder that is Sam Cooke, all in a work of musical criticism that made me cry at points. The way Fleming breaks down the music on this live album will change how you hear and process organized sound, which is what music is, right? The prose is so evocative but not in that forced way that you get with people who don't really know how music functions but want to try and impress you. You could teach this book in a music class, a class on creative writing, a history class, a sociology class. Impossible to pin down it feels both like everything at once and as focused as writing can be. What I love about the writing is that it feels almost improvised, like this was a jazz master but with words. But at the same time, I have the sense that it was meticulously laid out with a precise plan that was then executed to rigorous perfection. I've read some other books in the series, preferring those that keep the focus on music and read less like diary entries - which is an unfortunate theme of many I think - but you can't compare this book to those. This might as well be in a series by itself. Ultimate study of a single record, but also a written work of art.

[Bruce Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timely, insightful, and informative look at a ground breaking recording made in 1963 but not released in Cooke's lifetime. This is not a simple rehashing of that night's events or its playlist, but is instead a deep dive into the time, the place, the culture, the man, and his earned place among our nation's great performers. Fleming delivers to us the man who will write what is arguably one of the most important songs of the last quarter of the twentieth century, "A Change is Gonna Come"--which reverberates today as it did then with intensity and prescience. The author calls on his encyclopedic knowledge of American music--especially his expertise in Jazz--to place Cooke and this live recording where they belong among the best of the best. This is a book to savor, and one that will say with you.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The album itself is a raucous dancefloor monster but unfortunately I thought this volume was just ok. It's solid, going into the album and it's influences on modern day acts.

[Christopher Renberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first impression of the author was that ponytailed guy in GOOD WILL HUNTING who riffs on theory until upstaged by Matt Damon. The author was wordy and a bit pompous. However, that is, to me, the draw of this series. You never know the direction the author will take with their chosen disc. The album and Cooke have clearly impacted the life of the author. He waxed poetic about singer and song and event. I always thought it was just a groovy little live album.
I did like his connection of this performance and album to the following album, NIGHT BEAT, and the monumental release after that, "A Change Gonna Come". One begat the other which begat the other. That made sense and was worth all the verbosity to get that point illuminated.
Another fine edition to this series.

[Chris Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Just finished this book last night I read it straight through on my day off. This is the best book without a doubt the best in the 33 1/3 series. Fleming is brilliant. I just order two other books by Fleming this am and I am beyond excited to read them after enjoying this so much.

[QueenBNYC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of Sam Cooke and enjoyed this book immensely. It was so well written and interesting, unlike some of the 33-1/3 series which I found rather boring.

[Ahoy Matey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master class in music criticism, history, cultural criticism. Book does the valuable service - which no one has done before - of situating Cooke as a historical artist. In the grand scheme of artists - not just other soul singers. The book takes us on the journey from the night this album was recorded at a sweaty Miami club in the winter of 1963 - actually, before that too - to the composition and recording of "A Change Is Gonna Come" which Fleming convincingly argues wouldn't have happened without nights like the one documented on Live at the Harlem Square Club. We get in-depth histories of all of the songs: their studio counterparts and thorough examinations of each of the in performance on this album. There's a light personal component as well with the thrust being that great art isn't just for admiring but exists to help us live our lives better. Most 33 1/3 books are a kind of Wikipedia article or else some dramatic teenage story about coming out or finding one's identity and can be hit or miss bt this one stands apart as it's one bonafide work of art and literature that is also a great read for any music fan or culture buff or anyone interested in the Civil Rights Movement.

[Harrison Swinehart · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Finally, someone who gets it. Sam Cooke was more than a great soul singer. He was a Civil Rights visionary. Fleming shows us how the music at this amazing show played a part in shaping Sam Cooke’s vision for a better world in what boils down to a brilliant book. So much of the 33 1/3 is an exercise in navel-gazing. This is the one time, with any of the books that I’ve read in the story, that we get an exercise in art. This is a book for civics classes, history classes, as well as music classes. It’s a life book and goes so far beyond the empty sloganeering we see all the time now. Sam Cooke got it and so does Fleming.”

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being an avid Sam Cooke fan, I was really let down here. You don't get any history or really any commentary on the record as a whole. What I felt you got was 125 pages of metaphors and allusions about the power of Cooke. While I agree with the concept, I perhaps just didn't see its important as a whole entire reading. It just felt, and I felt this from the earliest pages, that the book need a true editor. It would have read like a nice compact essay, but as a book it just felt weak.

[Kara Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not much of an expert on jazz, but have enjoyed Fleming's other works so gave this one a try. I was surprised at how it pulled me in, and made me feel a deep connection to the artist and this particular recording. A good read not to be missed.