50 Years Ago Today James Brown Records One Of the Greatest Albums Of All Time – ‘Live at the Apollo’

It wasn't even supposed to happen, but after much debate with King Records, James Brown was able to record a live show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York on the night of October 24, 1962. The album would go on to become one of the greatest in the history of popular music.

It spent 66 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, peaking at #2. Many record stores, especially in the southeast US, found themselves unable to keep up with the demand for the product, eventually ordering several cases at a time. R&B disc jockeys often would play side 1 in its entirety, pausing (usually to insert commercials) only to return to play side 2 in full as well. The side break occurred in the middle of the long track "Lost Someone".

In 2003, the album was ranked number 24 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Brown went on to record several more albums at the Apollo over the course of his career, including 1968's Live at the Apollo, Vol. II, 1971's Revolution of the Mind: Recorded Live at the Apollo, Vol. III and Live at the Apollo 1995. 

Despite its renown and historical significance, Live at the Apollo was not reissued on CD until 1990 because the original master recordings had been misplaced and the available copies were not of a high enough quality for a satisfactory CD release. The master tapes were recovered in late 1989. A Deluxe Edition of the album featuring remastered sound and several alternate mixes was released in 2004.