James Brown Live At The Apollo
by James Brown
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James Brown bestography
James Brown Live At The Apollo is ranked as the best album by James Brown.
(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 James Brown Live At The Apollo on YouTube
James Brown Live At The Apollo track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
James Brown Live At The Apollo 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 |  Purplepash | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 90/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | Rm12398 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 11/100 | 18 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Greatest Rock Albums of all time by DigitalDreamDoor | 9/100 | - |
| 2026 |  sszwalbenest | Top 13 Music Albums of 1963 | 13/13 | 0 |
| 2026 |  ERadio | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 61/100 | 8 |
| 2026 | pjerske | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 34/100 | 13 |
| 2026 |  Helios | Top 30 Music Albums of 1963 | 1/30 | 5 |
| 2026 | sweetness | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 32/100 | 14 |
| 2026 | saltysurprise | Top 11 Music Albums of 1963 | 7/11 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 501-600 | 45/100 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 487 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 2,637 | |||
James Brown Live At The Apollo collection
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James Brown Live At The Apollo 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 580 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/18/2026 02:09 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
| ! | 06/26/2026 08:20 | ASOARE | 2,572 | 78/100 |
| ! | 06/23/2026 05:32 |  MadhattanJack | 6,053 | 66/100 |
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 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.4/100, a mean average of 77.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.5/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.4.
James Brown Live At The Apollo favourites
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James Brown Live At The Apollo forum mentions
neilgee 07/27/2026 21:57 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
BestEverAlbums 12/16/2025 21:00 in Album of the day (#5476): James Brown Live At The ApolloView latest topic →
BestEverAlbums 12/01/2024 17:00 in Monthly overall chart movements - November 2024View latest topic →
View all forum mentions
James Brown Live At The Apollo comments
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Graeme2 TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/10/2016 21:19 | #176673 | TOP COMMENT
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All time classic. Yes it's great. Obviously, it's James brown live. But it's not the best live album ever. In fact I'd rate it his 4th best live cd. So please please please (ahem) consider checking out his other classic live CDs like love peace power in Paris and the Dallas one. For me two of the best of any genre from when he was at his funk peak.
Not as good as I expected it to be. It's okay though, I just felt a little disappointed after hearing it, I expected a bit more considering it's reputation. (Edited)
swhaze TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/26/2014 21:25 | #110157 | TOP COMMENT
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Let me just start out by saying this isn't the greatest live album. It is influential, and proved that people would pay money to own a live recording, which is the main reason why it's often considored the best. However, there are many subsequent live recordings that are much better than this. (Edited)
junodog4 TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/02/2012 02:15 | #41365 | TOP COMMENT
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My God... what energy. This album vibrates and sweats when you hold it in your hands. Any aspiring artist needs to listen to this to understand what a live performance sounds like. Simply the best. Oh to be at the Apollo that night...
Captain_Dude 07/05/2011 18:40 | #23965 | TOP COMMENT
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The is, quite possibly, the best live performance ever captured on an album. No matter what your music tastes are, this album a is must-listen.
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