Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963
by Sam Cooke
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Sam Cooke bestography
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 is ranked 3rd best out of 28 albums by Sam Cooke on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Sam Cooke is Night Beat which is ranked number 1303 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,328.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 on YouTube
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  sszwalbenest | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 43/100 | 12 |
| 2026 | Rm12398 | Top 18 Music Albums of 1985 | 1/18 | 5 |
| 2026 |  ERadio | 201-300 | 20/100 | - |
| 2026 | saltysurprise | Top 54 Music Albums of 1985 | 27/54 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Glitterboiii | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 38/100 | 13 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Live Albums | 58/100 | - |
| 2026 |  CharlieBarley | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 69/100 | 32 |
| 2026 |  cestuneblague | Top 100 Music Albums of 1985 | 7/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | jonny5244 | Top 22 Music Albums of 1985 | 2/22 | 5 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 100 Music Albums of 1985 | 60/100 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 152 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 962 | |||
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 74 members
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 184 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/07/2026 02:29 | OldWiseOne1969 | 160 | 82/100 |
| ! | 09/01/2026 15:18 | AndyLish79 | 505 | 81/100 |
| ! | 05/16/2026 18:54 | CharlieBarley | 3,271 | 80/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 82.0/100, a mean average of 81.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 82.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.5.
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 28 members
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 10/08/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5459): By ApplerillView latest topic →
neilgee 07/10/2025 05:30 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)View all forum mentions
Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963 comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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I'm no expert on soul music but my initial impression after listening to this a couple of times is that this is possibly the most powerful soul singing I've ever heard. It brings that gospel fervour to secular music and is so full of unbridled emotion it's incredible. I love the fact you can hear the crowd and it sounds like a pretty small club. The band are nailing it too. What an incredible gig! (Edited)
Romanelli TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/10/2013 16:48 | #64689 | TOP COMMENT
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The album was recorded in 1963, but it was never released in any format until 1985.
Graeme2 TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/10/2018 23:18 | #207556 | TOP COMMENT
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Raw, no frills, plenty thrills. This is how you present a live record. No added bullshit like overdubs or even worse, added crowd noise. Of course it helps that the music is incredible and Cooke gives you goosebumps. Life affirming stuff. The only down is its taken me so long to listen to this. My dad had a wonderful compilation tape of all the wonderfull 50s and early 60s 45s that his mate made and I loved the Cooke stuff on there. It snapped though. I think he needs to hear this. (Edited)
When I listen to this, everything is right in the world.
Other comments have said it well. Get caught up in Cooke's mighty wave soulful sweat. Sometimes great music leaves you stanky.
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