The Best Live Albums

Ten records where the crowd noise is load-bearing.

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10
Category
Music
Updated
  1. A dusty reel-to-reel tape box on an archive shelf next to a small Miami nightclub stage with a microphone.

    10. Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963

    Sam Cooke · 1985

    Recorded at a Miami club in January 1963 and shelved by RCA for 22 years because it was too raw for Cooke's polished pop image. It finally came out in 1985 and is now considered the real Sam Cooke. RCA spent two decades protecting him from his best record.

  2. A talk box tube looped over a microphone stand with a gleaming electric guitar on a huge outdoor stage.

    09. Frampton Comes Alive!

    Peter Frampton · 1976

    A double live album by a modestly successful solo guitarist that became the best-selling album of 1976, largely on the strength of a talk box. The follow-up and a starring role in the Sgt. Pepper movie undid much of it. Never follow a live album with Bee Gees.

  3. An octagonal Tokyo arena roof at night with a checkered guitar on the stage inside.

    08. Cheap Trick at Budokan

    Cheap Trick · 1978

    Released only in Japan, where fans screamed through every song, it sold around 30,000 US imports before Epic gave in and issued it stateside. It went triple platinum and made them stars at home. Some of it was reportedly recorded in Osaka. The title stayed.

  4. A dim stage set with candles, stargazer lilies, an acoustic guitar and a crystal chandelier.

    07. MTV Unplugged in New York

    Nirvana · 1993

    Recorded November 18, 1993, on a set of stargazer lilies and candles, with the Meat Puppets as guests and a Lead Belly closer. It ignored most of the hits and won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. The quietest record ever made by a band famous for loud ones.

  5. A grand concert hall in Berlin with a single microphone on a stand and a jazz trio's instruments behind it.

    06. Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife

    Ella Fitzgerald · 1960

    February 1960, Deutschlandhalle. She forgot the words to Mack the Knife mid-song and made up new ones on the spot, cheerfully narrating her own memory lapse. It won two Grammys. Most singers who forget the lyrics in Berlin get a different response.

  6. A university dining hall with long tables pushed aside, a smashed guitar and towering amplifiers on a low stage.

    05. Live at Leeds

    The Who · 1970

    Taped in the University of Leeds dining hall on Valentine's Day 1970, it came in a plain sleeve stamped like a bootleg. Six songs, all louder than anything else in the record shop. Possibly the only time a student refectory has been the most dangerous room in England.

  7. Two electric guitars and a Hammond organ on a 1970s theater stage under psychedelic light-show projections.

    04. At Fillmore East

    The Allman Brothers Band · 1971

    Recorded over two March nights in 1971, with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts weaving guitars and Whipping Post stretched past 20 minutes. Duane died that October, months after release. The double LP fit seven songs, which by Allmans standards was rushing.

  8. The interior of a small church with a grand piano, rows of choir robes on chairs and stained glass windows.

    03. Amazing Grace

    Aretha Franklin · 1972

    Two nights in a Los Angeles Baptist church with Rev. James Cleveland and a full choir. It became the best-selling album of her career and the best-selling live gospel album ever. The concert film was shelved for decades over sync problems. The audio was never the problem.

  9. A prison yard stage with a black acoustic guitar on a stand, guard towers and razor wire behind.

    02. At Folsom Prison

    Johnny Cash · 1968

    Two shows inside Folsom on January 13, 1968, for a room of men who knew every word of Folsom Prison Blues. It revived Cash's career and topped the country chart. He never actually served prison time, which the audience generously let slide.

  10. A theater marquee and stage curtain at night in Harlem, a single microphone and a cape draped over it.

    01. Live at the Apollo

    James Brown · 1963

    Recorded at the Apollo on October 24, 1962, and paid for by Brown himself after King Records boss Syd Nathan said a live album of old songs wouldn't sell. It hit No. 2 and spent 66 weeks on the chart. Nathan was right that it would not sell. He was wrong about everything else.

Honorable mentions

  • An enormous oversized suit on a hanger on an empty stage beside a portable boombox.

    Stop Making Sense

    Talking Heads · 1984

    The soundtrack to Jonathan Demme's concert film, which starts with David Byrne alone on a bare stage with a boombox and adds a musician per song until it peaks with the big suit. Technically a soundtrack. Spiritually the best-dressed live album ever made.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A recording studio mixing console with a microphone, a pot of white face paint and a tube of red lipstick on the desk.

    Alive!

    Kiss · 1975

    The live album that broke Kiss, sending Rock and Roll All Nite into the top 20, was famously touched up in the studio afterward, with overdubs and sweetened crowd noise. A band in full kabuki makeup was not, in fairness, selling authenticity.

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