Fact #32462
When:
Short story:
James Brown releases the album Live At The Apollo, Vol 1, in the USA. The album was recorded during a concert at The Apollo, Harlem, New York City, USA.Full article:
James Brown - Live At The Apollo by Johnny Black
This frenzied, sweat-drenched aural-sex workout catapulted James Brown to the forefront of the rapidly evolving 60s soul scene, paving the way for the birth of funk.
Ray Charles, whose 1955 smash I Got A Woman is often cited as the first song to be labelled ‘soul’, has described the genre as “the fusion of gospel and blues”. Certainly, the word ‘soul’ was common currency among black American musicians from the early fifties, cropping up in the titles of jazz instrumentals, or in gospel band names such as Sam Cooke’s early combo The Soul Stirrers, or as a rock’n’roll song title like Little Richard’s Ooh! My Soul.
By the time James Brown, a regular fixture in the 50s R’n’B charts, started scoring Top 40 pop chart success in the early 60s, the term was being widely applied to more pop-oriented r’n’b acts such as Little Anthony & The Imperials, The Clovers and The Coasters.
Despite his chart hits, Brown felt he was still not reaching the widest possible audience. Inspired by a Top 20 placing in 1960 for Ray Charles’ live album, In Person, Brown decided that an in-concert release could reveal the excitement of his super-charged stage shows to an audience which only knew him through his inevitably more clinical studio recordings.
Unfortunately, Brown was contracted to King Records of Cincinnati, run by Syd Nathan, a formerly shrewd entrepreneur who was losing his touch. With soul album sales generally low, Nathan figured that if an act was performing regularly, there would be no demand for a recorded version, and refused to fund it.
Incensed, Brown put $5,700 of his own money up to finance the recording at the end of a week’s residency in the legendary Harlem Apollo. The day was bitterly cold, so Brown’s crew perked the audience up with free coffee and, from start to finish the gig was dynamite.
Brown’s musical director, Bobby Byrd, has recalled, “There was tension, you know, we were nervous about recording and all. But the minute we hit the stage … magic!” Brown and his tightly drilled band pounded out the hits, I’ll Go Crazy, Please Please Please, Night Train and the rest, while the engineers caught their manic live urgency on tape.
Even so, on release, Nathan’s continuing reluctance was evidenced by an initial pressing of a mere 5000 copies. There was like-for-like competition in the market place with Little Stevie Wonder’s live album 12-Year-Old Genius, but within days r&b radio deejays were playing the entire Apollo album end to end, and King Records was obliged to order the first of many re-pressings.
In a staggering 66 weeks on the pop LP chart, it peaked at No2, held off the No1 slot ironically enough by an album which was its polar opposite - Andy Williams’ Days Of Wine And Roses.
Live At The Apollo not only earned James Brown the title of the Hardest-Working Man In Showbusiness, but proved that in-concert albums could be very good for business indeed, attracting a vast new audience to an already established artist.
(Source : by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums, Backbeat Press, 2007)
EXTRAS ...
Al Kooper (organist/founder of Blood, Sweat And Tears) : I was only fourteen or so when I came into possession of that baby. Huddled in my room listening to where he says, 'I feel so good I wanna scream, I feel just like I wanna scream.' And someone in the audience yells out, 'Go ahead and scream,' and James just lets go with this primordial screeching, 'Oowwwwwwwww!!' I put my foot right through my bedroom wall.
Bob Seger (singer/songwriter) : That's probably my all-time favourite album. It was the power of that album that turned me on to James Brown. I remember going to see him at Cobo Hall in Detroit in 1964 or 65, and me and my friends were the only white guys in the entire audience. It became my ambition to write songs like Bob Dylan but with the power of James Brown.
Johnny Dowd (singer/songwriter) : I was fourteen when this record showed up at the appliance/record store in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma, USA. I'd heard mention of JB from a black kid named Wallace Fields – he was the kind of guy you knew if he said it was good it was the real deal. It's the sexiest record ever made. If you wonder what's missing in music these days, check it out.
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This frenzied, sweat-drenched aural-sex workout catapulted James Brown to the forefront of the rapidly evolving 60s soul scene, paving the way for the birth of funk.
Ray Charles, whose 1955 smash I Got A Woman is often cited as the first song to be labelled ‘soul’, has described the genre as “the fusion of gospel and blues”. Certainly, the word ‘soul’ was common currency among black American musicians from the early fifties, cropping up in the titles of jazz instrumentals, or in gospel band names such as Sam Cooke’s early combo The Soul Stirrers, or as a rock’n’roll song title like Little Richard’s Ooh! My Soul.
By the time James Brown, a regular fixture in the 50s R’n’B charts, started scoring Top 40 pop chart success in the early 60s, the term was being widely applied to more pop-oriented r’n’b acts such as Little Anthony & The Imperials, The Clovers and The Coasters.
Despite his chart hits, Brown felt he was still not reaching the widest possible audience. Inspired by a Top 20 placing in 1960 for Ray Charles’ live album, In Person, Brown decided that an in-concert release could reveal the excitement of his super-charged stage shows to an audience which only knew him through his inevitably more clinical studio recordings.
Unfortunately, Brown was contracted to King Records of Cincinnati, run by Syd Nathan, a formerly shrewd entrepreneur who was losing his touch. With soul album sales generally low, Nathan figured that if an act was performing regularly, there would be no demand for a recorded version, and refused to fund it.
Incensed, Brown put $5,700 of his own money up to finance the recording at the end of a week’s residency in the legendary Harlem Apollo. The day was bitterly cold, so Brown’s crew perked the audience up with free coffee and, from start to finish the gig was dynamite.
Brown’s musical director, Bobby Byrd, has recalled, “There was tension, you know, we were nervous about recording and all. But the minute we hit the stage … magic!” Brown and his tightly drilled band pounded out the hits, I’ll Go Crazy, Please Please Please, Night Train and the rest, while the engineers caught their manic live urgency on tape.
Even so, on release, Nathan’s continuing reluctance was evidenced by an initial pressing of a mere 5000 copies. There was like-for-like competition in the market place with Little Stevie Wonder’s live album 12-Year-Old Genius, but within days r&b radio deejays were playing the entire Apollo album end to end, and King Records was obliged to order the first of many re-pressings.
In a staggering 66 weeks on the pop LP chart, it peaked at No2, held off the No1 slot ironically enough by an album which was its polar opposite - Andy Williams’ Days Of Wine And Roses.
Live At The Apollo not only earned James Brown the title of the Hardest-Working Man In Showbusiness, but proved that in-concert albums could be very good for business indeed, attracting a vast new audience to an already established artist.
(Source : by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums, Backbeat Press, 2007)
EXTRAS ...
Al Kooper (organist/founder of Blood, Sweat And Tears) : I was only fourteen or so when I came into possession of that baby. Huddled in my room listening to where he says, 'I feel so good I wanna scream, I feel just like I wanna scream.' And someone in the audience yells out, 'Go ahead and scream,' and James just lets go with this primordial screeching, 'Oowwwwwwwww!!' I put my foot right through my bedroom wall.
Bob Seger (singer/songwriter) : That's probably my all-time favourite album. It was the power of that album that turned me on to James Brown. I remember going to see him at Cobo Hall in Detroit in 1964 or 65, and me and my friends were the only white guys in the entire audience. It became my ambition to write songs like Bob Dylan but with the power of James Brown.
Johnny Dowd (singer/songwriter) : I was fourteen when this record showed up at the appliance/record store in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma, USA. I'd heard mention of JB from a black kid named Wallace Fields – he was the kind of guy you knew if he said it was good it was the real deal. It's the sexiest record ever made. If you wonder what's missing in music these days, check it out.