I Am the Greatest (Cassius Clay album)
| I Am the Greatest | ||||
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| Studio album by Cassius Clay | ||||
| Released | 1963 | |||
| Recorded | 1963 | |||
| Genre | Spoken word | |||
| Label | Columbia Records | |||
| Muhammed Ali chronology | ||||
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| Singles from I Am the Greatest | ||||
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I Am the Greatest is a spoken word album by boxer Cassius Clay, released in August 1963 – six months before he won the world heavyweight championship, announced his conversion to Islam, and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. It was released by CBS Columbia. The album helped establish Ali's reputation as an eloquently poetic "trash talker".
The liner notes were written by the American poet Marianne Moore, a longstanding fan of Clay. Clay collaborated on the writing for the album with the comedy writer Gary Belkin, who was listed as producer on the original release and later as a co-writer in a 1999 re-release. Belkin would later claim he had largely ghost-written the works, although Belkin's assertions have been disputed (e.g., by George Plimpton and David Remnick). The album idea had been proposed to Clay by the William Morris Agency, and the recording was conducted at Columbia Records' 30th Street New York Studio before an audience of 200 people.
Rather than being listed as "tracks", the first 8 entries on the album were listed with "rounds" numbers, and Billboard duly noted that Clay claimed he would beat Sonny Liston in 8 rounds. Although Clay's remarks were treated skeptically at the time as mere promotional bragging, when the Liston fight was held the following February, Clay won in a major upset when Liston gave up after only 6 rounds. Clay had proved tougher than expected from the beginning, and he began to dominate the fight in the third round. Despite being nearly blinded in the fourth round – apparently by an ointment used on a cut on Liston's face – Clay recovered, and by the end of the sixth round he was landing blow-after-blow in combinations, almost at will. At the opening of the seventh round, Liston spat out his mouth guard and refused to rise to continue.
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