# James Brown — Cold Sweat

James Brown’s Cold Sweat (1967) appears on 4 of our lists — Funk, Roots, The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, and The Waxonia Desk — Where the Accent Moved, highest at No. 1 in Funk. Every verdict, in full.

- **Released:** 1967
- **Label:** King
- **On:** Funk, Roots, The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, and The Waxonia Desk — Where the Accent Moved
- **Updated:** 2026-08-29
- **Artist:** [James Brown](https://waxonia.com/artist/james-brown/)
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/track/james-brown--cold-sweat/

## What 4 lists say

### No. 1 in [Funk](https://waxonia.com/genre/funk/)

The year zero record. Brown moves the accent to the first beat and stops changing chord, and everything in this list plus most of what follows it on this site is downstream of that one instruction to the band.

### Picked by [Roots](https://waxonia.com/theme/the-desk-roots/)

Start here. Brown tells the band to put the accent on the first beat and stop changing chord, and the next sixty years of dance music become possible in about eight bars.

### Picked by [The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/)

The accent moves to the first beat and the chord stops changing. Eight bars that reorganise the next sixty years.

### Picked by [The Waxonia Desk — Where the Accent Moved](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-accent-moved/)

The moment the accent moved and harmony stopped being the point. Everything filed under funk since is an argument with the arrangement on this one record.

## Analysis

3 sections, the first drop of 2 at 1:09, 40% of the way in.

- **Tempo:** 112.3 BPM — holds throughout
- **Dynamic range:** 3.3 dB — compressed hard — very little between the quiet and the loud
- **Length:** 2:51

- `0:00` A · **peak**, instrumental — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: drums, bass, vocals, other
- `1:12` A · **lift** (bar 34), instrumental — a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build — playing: drums, bass, vocals, other
- `2:25` B · **outro** (bar 68), instrumental — the closing fall — playing: bass, other

**Drops** at 1:09 (bar 33), 2:22 (bar 67). A drop is a moment, not a stretch.

**What is playing.** Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.

- **drums:** the drum kit, separated from the mix
- **bass:** the bass part, separated from the mix
- **vocals:** the voice, separated from the mix
- **other:** everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings

Measured from the YouTube master on 2026-08-29. Section labels describe how the energy
moves, not musical form. Anything we were not confident enough to state is omitted
rather than hedged.

## Listen

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/James%20Brown%20Cold%20Sweat) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=qkgIoMuaoQ0)

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