Universal Music Group/Blue Note Records/Polygram Entertainment/UMeThe soundtrack for the HBO documentary The Apollo was released online Friday, featuring classics by Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Aretha Franklin.
“What’s Going On,” by Gaye, The Godfather of Soul’s “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,” and Aretha’s “Rock Steady’ are among the soundtrack’s 32 tracks. Music by icons Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Billie Holiday are also on the album, plus a recording of President Barack Obama appearing at a campaign fundraiser at the famed theater in Harlem, New York on January 19, 2012.
CD and vinyl editions featuring liner notes by album executive producer Pharrell Williams will be released December 20.
Performances by Brown, Franklin, Fitzgerald, Lauryn Hill and Richard Pryor are featured in the film, which also includes interviews with Angela Bassett, Common, Jamie Foxx, Patti LaBelle and Smokey Robinson.
The Apollo Theater opened in 1934 and is known as the venue “Where stars are born and legends are made.”
The documentary will premiere November 6 on HBO.
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