On November 13, 1963, as veteran producer/liner-notes writer Bob Altshuler explains, "Atco microphones were positioned on the Apollo stage" after the showing of a film preceding this concert, which began "a few minutes before twelve o'clock." Decades later, this material by
Doris Troy,
Otis Redding,
Rufus Thomas,
the Falcons,
the Coasters, and
Ben E. King remains a vital document of a special time when entertainment was pure and remarkable. Opening with
Wilson Pickett and
Eddie Floyd's version of
the Falcons, the tone is set for the album, sticking to deeper cuts from the various artists' catalogs and shying away from their hits, with the exception of "Walking the Dog" from
Rufus Thomas and headliner
Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." The two
Otis Redding tracks were taped more than a year and a half before his first Top 40 hit, while the former Apollo Theater usherette who follows
Redding on this set, the marvelous
Doris Troy, was riding high with "Just One Look" on the charts a few months before this taping. That gem isn't here, but her unique interpretation of "Misty" and her own "Say Yeah" are. Every one of the performances is top-notch, concluding with a finale where all concerned do a short rendition of
Ray Charles' "What I'd Say." Essential entertainment. ~ Joe Viglione