Today in Music (1962): James Brown is recorded live at the Apollo

Live at the Apollo James Brown

Recorded: October 24, 1962 Released: May 1963 Charted: June 29, 1963 Peak: 2 US Sales (in millions): 1.0 Genre: R&B

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Introduction by Fats Gonder – Opening Fanfare [1:48] I’ll Go Crazy (James Brown) [2:05] (2/22/60, 73 US, 15 RB) Try Me (I Need You) (James Brown) [2:14] (11/10/58, #8 US, 1 RB) Instrumental Bridge [0:12] Think (Lowman Pauling) [1:45] (5/2/60, 33 US, 7 RB) Instrumental Bridge [0:12] I Don’t Mind (James Brown) [2:27] (5/15/61, 47 US, 4 RB) Instrumental Bridge [0:11] Lost Someone (James Brown/Bobby Byrd/Lloyd Stallworth) [10:43] (12/18/61, 48 US, 2 RB) Medley: [6:27] Please, Please, Please (James Brown/Johnny Terry) (4/7/56, 95 US, 5 RB) You've Got the Power (James Brown/Johnny Terry) (5/2/60, 86 US, 14 RB) I Found Someone (aka “I Know It’s True”) (James Brown) (2/22/60, B-side of “I’ll Go Crazy”) Why Do You Do Me (Bobby Byrd/Sylvester Keels) (3/56, single) I Want You So Bad (James Brown) (4/20/59, 20 RB) I Love You, Yes I Do (Henry Glover/Sally Nix/Eddie Seiler/Guy Wood) Strange Things Happen (Roy Hawkins) (album cut from 1959’s Try Me! Bewildered (Teddy Powell/Leonard Whitcup) (2/18/61, 40 US, 8 RB) Please, Please, Please (reprise) Night Train/Closing (Oscar Washington/Lewis P. Simpkins/Jimmy Forrest) [3:26] (4/14/62, 35 US, 5 RB) Note: chart peaks are for studio versions. Total Running Time: 27:23

Rating: 4.473 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings) Quotable: “There is no more exciting document of live performance in the history of R&B.” – Barney Hoskyns, Amazon.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Doing Justice to the Genius of James Brown James Brown is now widely acclaimed as “The Godfather of Soul,” but at the time of this album’s release, he was “still widely unknown outside the African-American community.” JD Apollo “predates the brittle but powerful funk grooves which would later make Brown the most sampled man in show business and focuses on his earlier and (relatively) more conventional hits, the building blocks of his pioneering sound are all here in high-octane live versions.” AM The album “not only gave Brown national prominence in America, it also made clear the arrival of soul music.” CM “Soul had grown out of traditional gospel and 1950s R&B, and it combined the devotion of church music and the looming desires of secular grooves. With his mastery of the call and response style and his seditious tone…Brown was the preacher ready to minister to more than just souls.” CM “By the end of these thirty-two minutes, no one will doubt that James really was the hardest working man in show business (and this without even seeing him dance!).” AM Even though “you can’t see what Brown…was doing…the audience’s response….make it all easy to imagine.” CM “There is no more exciting document of live performance in the history of R&B.” AZ In fact, it is “one of the most thrilling live albums in pop history.” TM It has gone “down in history as one of the best live albums ever made.” JD Brown Bets on Himself His studio albums failed to do “justice to his dynamic performance style” NRR so Brown, inspired by the top-20 success of Ray Charles’ live In Person album, TB asked his record label to record one of his shows. Syd Nathan, the founder of King Records, “refused, arguing that no live record could sell without an accompanying single.” TM knowing “his live performances contained electricity unable to be reproduced in the studio,” RV Brown bankrolled the project himself, TL putting up $5700 “to finance the recording at the end of a week’s residency in the legendary Harlem Apollo.” TB When Nathan heard the results, he relented and agreed to release Live at the Apollo, TM although an initial pressing of only 5000 copies TB made it clear he was still skeptical. However, “demand became so great…that DJs played the album in its entirety.” TL It ended up on the Billboard charts for more than a year, peaking at #2 and selling a million copies. It became “a watershed album, both for James Brown and for the burgeoning soul music movement.” AM Capturing Him Live Harlem’s Apollo Theater was “the ultimate shrine of black American music.” AZ “Like many R&B artists, he knew it as a place where even seasoned performers are tested, and knew…that positive word of mouth from the show would travel everywhere.” TM “Brown doesn’t merely tame the notoriously fickle Apollo crowd” TM of “approximately 1500 deliriously elevated fans;” CM “he blows them clear to the red-velvet back wall of the theater.” TM “The Apollo audience, hysterical with adulation, plays as big a part in Live at the Apollo as Brown himself.” AZ This “seminal live recording [now stands as] a time capsule documenting the latter days of the Chitlin’ Circuit and an album that influenced countless artists across genres. It’s equal parts Saturday at the juke joint, Sunday sermon and last dance of the night.” PM “Hearing Brown’s emotive style and soulful crooning elicit both fevered screams and intense concentration from the Apollo audience showcases the raw power of ‘Mr. Dynamite’ at his dynamic best.” PM He “puts on a flawless show of dynamism that lost nothing in the transfer to vinyl.” TL The Band Brown is “helped immeasurably by backing vocalists the Famous Flames, who cushion and caterwaul…and a backing band…who had been honed by years on the road with their fearsomely disciplined leader.” CM They are “in stellar form, tight as a fist (especially the horn section) and supporting their leader with both strength and subtlety,” AM moving “like a single organism, with the horns ‘answering’ Brown’s guttural moans and bone-rattling wails, the bass and the rhythm guitar prompting an impossible-to resist swaying of the hips, and the tight snare drum hits on two and four sweeping us up, hypnotizing us, and virtually reprogramming our heartbeats in time with Brown’s.” JD “Individual members shine through, whether it’s the alternately sighing and slashing guitar chords of Les Buie or the rousing rhythms that Clayton Fillyau produces for the intoxicating ‘Think.’” CM Through it all, though, “Brown is truly the star of this show.” AM “Live at the Apollo left no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was a live performer without peer, and that his talent could communicate just as strongly on tape as in person.” AM The Songs “The album seems like one continuous medley – Brown follows hit after hit with staggering verve.” RV “The set contains only six full songs, and most of those clock in at under two minutes.” JD “Deftly swinging from up-tempo grooves to romantic ballads (albeit delivered with Brown’s typically abundant enthusiasm),” JD Apollo “captures the sound of Brown baring his soul with an almost unbearable intensity, which drives the audience into a manic chorus of shouts and screams.” AM “In the two minutes of Think, Brown and his agile Famous Flames create a rippling wave of raw emotion.” TM The album also finds Brown “whirling together love ballads including I Found Someone.” TM On Please Please Please, Brown “offers a pleading epic on the vicissitudes of romance.” TM “The entire performance is linked by instrumental bridges as the band builds up to the big medley – a six-minute merger of bits and pieces…then hurtles through the frantic farewell of Night Train.” JD “Some listeners have suggested that the length of the recording and the effect of alternating the pounding, up-tempo grooves with the seductive slow jams evokes an expert session of lovemaking…One thing is for sure: The tone of the banter between Brown and the audience (especially the women) is positively orgasmic at times, as during” JD “the slow burn seduction of Lost Someone.” CM “The song builds with intensity until the bottom drops, a…move that sends the audience into hysterics.” RV and “is one of the most heart-stopping moments in soul.” AZ

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for James Brown AM AllMusic.com review by Mark Deming AZ Amazon.com review by Barney Hoskyns CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Page 148. JD Jim DeRogatis (2006). “The Great Albums” TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 120. NRR National Recording Registry PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 50. TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light DW Douglas Wolk (2004). 33 1/3: Live at the Apollo Bloomsbury: New York. First posted 10/24/2011; last updated 9/27/2024.

Terence Trent D’Arby’s debut released

Introducing the Hardline According to… Terence Trent D’Arby

Released: July 13, 1987 Peak: 4 US, 13 RB, 19 UK, -- CN, 15 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 1.72 UK, 12.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: R&B/pop

Tracks: Click on a song titled for more details. If You All Get to Heaven [5:17] If You Let Me Stay [3:14] Wishing Well [3:30] I’ll Never Turn My Back on You (Father’s Words) [3:37] Dance Little Sister [3:55] Seven More Days [4:34] Let’s Go Forward [5:32] Rain [2:58] Sign Your Name [4:37] As Yet Untitled [5:33] Who’s Lovin’ You [4:24] Total Running Time: 47:11

Rating: 4.170 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Beginning The Manhattan-born Terence Trent Howard was “reared in a Pentecostal family in Florida, a product of integrated Southern high schools.” DM After serving in the U.S. Army, he “moved to London, England, where his demo tape caught the attention of CBS record executives.” TB “He became the first black American expatriate pop star of any consequence since Jimi Hendrix.” DM He was given an unusual amount of creative freedom when it came to recording his debut album, which he wrote and produced himself and on which he played a variety of instruments, from piano and drums to clarinet and saxophone.” TB Reception Introducing the Hardline has been called “one of the best debuts ever.” AZ The album debuted atop the UK album chart and sold a million copies within its first three days of release. WK Three singles from the album reached the top 10 in the UK. However, it wasn’t until Wishing Well, the album’s second single, that the album took off in the U.S. It peaked at #4 the same week that “Wishing Well” reached #1. In an all-time hype-worthy move, the “young, cocky black…singer” AM “claimed that this was the most important album since the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.” He later said, “A lot of it is what I truly believed, but a lot of it was exaggerated to make a point. You have to hit people over the head to make them notice.” FB There were critics who went so far as to call him “the one artist who was capable of rivaling the rhythm empire of Michael Jackson.” RY AM Introducing the Hardline… certainly isn’t that essential, but it is still “a stunning, soulful approach to merging old influences and new realities.” AZ The BBC called the album “a soundtrack to the turning point when the ‘80s turned from austerity to prosperity. It’s…central to that decade…It remains one big, infectiously glorious record.” WK Influences “D’Arby’s music is classic black pop in a tradition that owes a lot to gospel and Motown, but also, like any post-disco pop music, pays close attention to current dance fashion.” DM He is “a singer/songwriter as well as a stylized vocalist” RD who “makes a solid case for both aspects of his artistry here.” RD His “maverick spirit drew comparisons with Prince, whose genre-bending artistic leaps had clearly inspired D’Arby’s attempts at assimilating elements of rock, pop, funk, and soul.” TB “Although the production is quite modern, D’Arby shows his roots in the work of older artists, borrowing a page or two from Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, while James Brown appears to have had the strongest influence on D’Arby’s stage presence.” AM Impact D’Arby “filled the R&B/soul auteur gap between Prince’s mainstream success of the mid-1980s and the neo-soul movement that developed more than a decade later.” RD Without D’Arby, ““it’s hard to fathom Maxwell, Tony Toni Tone, or any other neo-soul boys.” AZ The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

If You All Get to Heaven Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 17 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.14 streaming About the Song: “The album still holds up well today, despite the trademark Eighties studio production sounds – such as the echoey drumbeat and period keyboards sounds on ‘If You All Get to Heaven,’ the album’s opening track.” RD

If You Let Me Stay Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: 2/16/87 (single), Introducing the Hardline (1987) B Side: “Wonderful World” Peak: 68 BB, 77 CB, 19 RB, 7 UK, 36 AU, 2 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4.4 video, 17.21 streaming About the Song: The lead single from Introducing the Hardline was a top-10 hit in the UK but was criminally overlooked in the U.S. It should have been re-released after “Wishing Well” and “Sign Your Name” were top 10 hits in the U.S., but alas, it never got its due.

Wishing Well Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby, Sean Oliver (see lyrics here) Released: 6/8/87 (single), Introducing the Hardline (1987) B Side: “Elevators & Hearts” First Charted: June 20, 1987 Peak: 11 BB, 11 CB, 4 GR, 3 RR, 44 AC, 11 RB, 1 CO, 4 UK, 12 CN, 9 AU, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 33.8 video, 83.03 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “D’Arby was an old-school ’60s-style soul rasper…[who] drew on gospel and on the soul singers – Al Green, Sam Cooke, James Brown – who had drawn on gospel in earlier decades.” SG “His voice is capable of all the smoke and honey textures of Sam Cooke while capturing the punchy muscle of Otis Redding.” RY The video for “Wishing Well” “makes it clear: D’Arby was a rare and special talent. He could sing. He could move. He could dress. “ SG He was a star. “The song is both playful and portentous, and it’s got an extremely catchy whistled hook that’ll bounce around the inside of your skull. D’Arby sings the absolute hell out of it, screaming and grunting and hitting heavenly falsetto runs.” SG “The powerful rhythm is uncompromisingly solid and driving” RY with its “big drum sound.” SG The “sparkly bluesy guitars” SG are “as relaxed as a funk guitar can possibly be.” RY “It’s the keyboard riff that sets the whole thing ablaze, though. With three syncopated notes, it elevates the rhythm to perfection.” RY The “catchy synthesizer hook amply proved that he was an ambassador to all things soulful.” RD “Lyrically, ‘Wishing Well’ is basically a love song, though its lyrics are flowery romantic-poet gibberish…D’Arby sings of a wishing well that’s full of both butterfly tears and crocodile cheers, which doesn’t make any sense.” SG He said, it “was written when I was in a half-asleep, half-awake state of mind. I like the feel of the words on that song. Actually, most of my lyrics are written in about 10 minutes.” FB D’Arby was embraced much quicker in the UK where “Wishing Well” charted nearly a year before it topped the Billboard Hot 100. In fact, when “Wishing Well” debuted on the chart in January 1988, D’Arby was already working on his third top-10 hit in the UK. By the time he reached #1 four months later, D’Arby had been nominated for Best New Artist and performed the song at the Grammys.

I’ll Never Turn My Back on You (Father’s Words) Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 12 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.41 streaming

Dance Little Sister Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: 9/28/87 (single), Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 30 BB, 28 CB, 28 RR, 9 RB, 6 CO, 20 UK, 41 AU, 4 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.8 video, 21.0 streaming About the Song: “The sassy ‘Dance Little Sister’ is delivered, as the sportscasters would say, with authority.” RD This song is so packed with soul you can practically hear D’Arby doing his best James Brown shimmy on stage.

Seven More Days Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 5 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.53 streaming

Let’s Go Forward Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 13 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.18 streaming

Rain Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: April 1988 (single), Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 7 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.58 streaming

Sign Your Name Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: 12/28/87 (single), Introducing the Hardline (1987) B Side: “Greasy Chicken” Peak: 4 BB, 3 CB, 3 RR, 13 AC, 2 RB, 3 CO, 2 UK, 3 AU, 5 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 30.0 video, 109.76 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “The sultry ‘Sign Your Name’ – a real showcase for the D’Arby pipes – sounds current regardless of when it is played.” RD it “was the deepest soul track on D’Arby’s brash debut LP.” DM “‘Sign your name across my heart’ serves as both invitation and warning; like Roy Orbison, D’Arby knows love hurts but refuses to flinch.” DM It “becomes a line that cuts through every listener’s defenses. The line might have been written as nothing more than a cute devotional metaphor, but in D’Arby’s mouth it was transformed. And that’s the job.” DM

As Yet Untitled Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Terence Trent D’Arby Released: Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.0 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The singer “demonstrates remarkable vocal strength on the a cappella ‘As Yet Untitled.’” RD

Who’s Lovin’ You Terence Trent D’Arby

Writer(s): Smokey Robinson Released: Introducing the Hardline (1987) Peak: 5 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 7.73 streaming About the Song: “His cover of Smokey Robinson’s ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’ predates the so-called smooth R&B movement that emerged in the 1990s.” RD

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Rob Bowman AZ Amazon.com review by Amy Linden FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 697. RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 584. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Pages 480-2. RY Thomas Ryan (1996). American Hit Radio: A History of Popular Singles From 1955 to the Present. Prima Publishing: Rocklin, CA. Pages 568-70. SG Stereogum (4/30/2021). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 237. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/4/2008; last updated 7/18/2026.