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14 flagships · 25 briefs staged (weekly from Oct 13) · 9 dossiers · 25 guides · 2,957 entities — record updated October 12, 2026
The DuSable Black History Museum’s Harold Washington Wing, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Research Brief

Photo: TonyTheTiger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Research Briefs

Sam Cooke — Live at the Harlem Square Club (1985)

CTL Thin Brief · CTL-TB-000124 · Published 2026-10-09

Thin Brief — a short evidence sketch, not a full research brief.

What makes Live at the Harlem Square Club a landmark?

Recorded in January 1963 at the Harlem Square Club in Miami and released in 1985 by RCA, the album presents Cooke working a small room with ferocious, gospel-charged energy. SUPPORTED

Key facts

  • Sam Cooke was a soul singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur known as the King of Soul. SUPPORTED
  • The album was recorded in January 1963 at the Harlem Square Club in Miami, Florida. SUPPORTED
  • It was released in 1985 by RCA, more than two decades after it was recorded. SUPPORTED
  • Cooke died in 1964, making the set a window into his live craft in his prime years. SUPPORTED
  • The raw performance contrasts with his polished studio hits, showing his gospel-charged stage presence. PROVISIONAL

Sources

  • AllMusic: Live at the Harlem Square Club album page
  • RCA Records catalog
  • Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee biography — Sam Cooke

Evidence grades: VERIFIED — strong primary or multiple corroborating sources. SUPPORTED — credible, partly corroborated. PROVISIONAL — single source or general knowledge, uncorroborated.

Cite as: CultureTechLens, "Sam Cooke — Live at the Harlem Square Club (1985) (CTL-TB-000124)," 2026-10-09.

Source: CultureTechLens

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Re-dedication ceremony at the Victory Monument, 35th Street and King Drive, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Re-dedication ceremony at the Victory Monument, 35th Street and King Drive, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton, Illinois National Guard (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, Bronzeville, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, Bronzeville, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: Legimet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Door of the historic Chicago Defender Building, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Door of the historic Chicago Defender Building, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: TonyTheTiger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.