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New versions of Night Beat and Harlem Square Club, apparently done by the same team that did the ABKCO discs, plus a reissue of The Best Of Sam Cooke. I have *no* idea why that is necessary. Of course, Best Buy only had Best Of yesterday.

http://members.tripod.com/clarkkauffman/id34.htm

RCA Records and Sony Legacy has reissued three classic Sam Cooke albums! All three are now in stores and we think all three of these titles are significant upgrades of the previously released versions. Here's the scoop:

All three discs will be released at budget prices! CD Universe is now selling the discs at prices of $8.39 each -- a real bargain, considering the work that went into each title -- and Border's and Best Buy have them for $11.99 each.

"Harlem Square" and "The Best Of Sam Cooke" have been newly remastered by Steve Rosenthal, the miracle-worker who helped produce those highly acclaimed SACD-hybrid discs issued by Abkco in 2003. Mastering of all three discs was done by Bob Ludwig, widely considered one of the best mastering engineers in the business. "The Best Of Sam Cooke," once a sonic embarrassment, benefits the most from new analog-to-digital transfers by Rosenthal.

"Live At The Harlem Square Club" has been newly remixed and sounds better than ever in this, its third and latest incarnation. The album now opens with a one-minute King Curtis instrumental, "Soul Twist" that has never before been released. It also includes slightly longer versions of "Feel It" and "Havin' A Party" in place of the edited performances featured on the original LP and CD issues. It also boasts brand new cover art (pictured above) that features King Curtis. The new cover makes this one of the best looking discs in Sam's entire catalogue.

"The Best Of Sam Cooke" now features three bonus tracks: "Win Your Love For Me," "You Were Made For Me" and "Nothing Can Change This Love." The old CD version of "The Best Of Sam Cooke" included as a bonus track Sam's up-tempo version of "Summertime." The new CD omits this track, but it's not missed. The packaging is vastly improved, boasting detailed session notes, color photos of Sam memorabilia and more!

Robert Palmer's excellent liner notes for the 1995 CD release of "Night Beat" have been replaced with new, more authoritative notes by Cooke biographer Peter Guralnick. Peter also supplemented his Grammy-winning liner notes for the "Harlem Square" album with a few new insights and observations. Purists will appreciate the fact that the running order of the tracks has reverted to that of the original LP, although I'm still partial to the song line-up on the 1995 release.

Two of the discs are housed in handsome digipack cases similar to the 2003 reissues from Abkco and "The Best Of Sam Cooke" includes a white slip case labeled "Sam Cooke: The Hits" and some red (rather than black) typography so it can't be confused with the previously issued 12-track version.

Bertha Franklin ended Sam's recording career.

Tempting. Anyone compare them yet?

Got Night Beat and Harlem Square today. I only have the box set (which contains both albums complete) and the ABKCO best-of (just for Little Red Rooster) to compare with.

Night Beat
It's interesting to note there's no credit for remixing, just for mastering. The general sound is quite close to the box set (just without the noise reduction, so it is a notch better), so I'm wondering if they just used those mixes. Anyone have any idea what the original mixes sound like? Anyway, in the car, something just didn't quite seem right with the vocal. The ABKCO disc (again, just LRR) seems a bit brighter in comparison, although I'm not sure if that's a difference in mix or mastering. Note this isn't narrowed down at all like much of the ABKCO stuff.

Harlem Square
Interesting to note that there's an ABKCO logo on the back along with all the Sony/BMG stuff. This one was remixed by Steve Rostenthal, and the transfers were apparently DSD. While the mix on the box set seems to be a more or less "straight" (L-C-R) 3-track mix, this one is a lot closer to mono. There is a little separation, but not much compared to the other mix. Beyond that, the new mix has a bit more "beef" to it. EQ and compression maybe? I'll have to listen some more.

Something *really* strange - at the end of the show, Sam leaves the stage with the band still playing, and then the announcer gives him a send off. On the box set mix, the band plays a bit longer and then finally stops. On the new CD, however, things just fade out about 20 seconds early. Huh?

On the flip side, the new disc begins with "Soul Twist" before the introduction. Not a huge deal, but not there on the box set. I don't *think* there's anything else not on the box set.

Kind of sucks that one needs to make a hybrid of both to be complete.

If you happened to have picked up one of the new 'Harlem Square' discs that has a mastering defect -- about one second of "Twisting The Night Away" is missing --
all you have to do is call 1-800-255-7514 and request a replacement disc.
For those who have yet to buy this album, no need to worry. RCA/Legacy is
already in the process of getting newly corrected discs onto store shelves.

Looks like mine is bad. At about 0:56 there's a jump:

"How he got here I don't know but, Aww [...] see him go, twistin' the night..."