The Best Live Albums Of All Time, Ranked

By Edmund Blake

Sam Cooke, ‘Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963’

Something that sets this live album apart from the others is that it wasn’t released until 22 years after the live performances. For example, Sam Cooke’s live album Live at the Harlem Square Club featured recordings from 1963 from a show at Miami’s Harlem Square Club. But, they weren’t released until 1985 because the record label shelved them until then.

In those 22 years, Sam Cooke fell in popularity and didn’t have a fanbase like he used to. However, the live album showed a new, raw perspective that helped him garner a new generation of fans, which was well-deserved for an artist of his caliber.