Editorial Reviews

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, All Music Guide

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