"That girl took that song away from me!!!!

It was the summer of 1967. Otis Redding was in the midst of the performance of his life at Monterey International Pop Festival. What he was referring to of course was the way Aretha Franklin had turned his song "Respect" into one of the biggest hits of the year. His version topped out at #35 on the pop charts a couple of years earlier. But I digress. Otis Redding was just beginning to hit his stride as summer turned to autumn in 1967. This veteran performer had been around for a while. The fact is that up until this point he had made the Billboard Hot 100 a total of 19 times although his records usually ran out of gas somewhere in the middle of the chart. His tunes fared much better on the Soul/R&B charts where 8 of them had made it into the Top Ten. It is really difficult to understand why the man had not had greater commercial success up until this point. After taking a few months off Otis Redding returned to the studio in early December 1967. There he recorded a song he had co-written with Steve Cropper. Everyone thought it was a mistake. His wife hated it. Three days later Otis Redding was dead at 26, a victim of a tragic plane crash in Wisconsin.
When the story appeared in the newspaper I remember thinking to myself "Who is that?" And although I had been collecting records for about three years I had never heard of him. Despite his enormous talent Otis Redding had just not quite connected with general audiences. Less than two months later in January of 1968, Volt records released that tune his wife and friends hated so much. "(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay" went all the way to #1 on the Pop charts and remained there for a month. Everyone was now beginning to realize just how talented this man had been. There are a few different Otis Redding collections around but I find this to be the best of the lot. You'll hear his version of tunes that went on to become hits by other artists like 1965's "I Can't Turn You Loose" and his dynamic version of the great blues standard "Try A Little Tenderness". In the meantime, you'll also enjoy the exhilirating work of the Stax/Volt house band who were undeniably at their peak during this time. For me other favorites on this compilation are the 1968 hit "The Happy Song (Dum-Dum") and Otis' high energy duet with Carla Thomas "Tramp". An informative 12 page booklet with interesting biographical information and chart data for each track is also included. Believe me you cannot go wrong with this one. Highly recommended.

essential historical document

you should get this if you are even remotely interested in branching out your musical tastes. Also get his Live in Europe cd, which has most of the same songs, but more emphasis on his gravelly type voice. He comes across as a bit of a crooner on a few songs on here, but for the most part his voice is very raw. This should be a part of any music collection, along with the live album. I was happy to be able to get songs like "the dock of the bay" and "dreams to remember," both really good songs. I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone.

Forever Otis!

It was indeed tragic that we lost Otis at such a young age and at the height of a dynamic career. It's another shame, as I've read in the liner notes, that when he died the pop audience hardly knew him. It was that same old "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" that kept getting played and played. That's now his singature song for pop fans. For R&B fans, it's either "Try A Little Tenderness", check that out: starts real low and smooth and then builds and Otis really cuts loose, or there is the original "Respect". That song is hot stuff; it has a jumpy beat, dynamic bass and sax spots yet this song is so criminally ignored. Sure, Aretha hit it big with it, but let's give credit where it's due. The rest of this album rocks with a lot of soul. His duet with Carla Thomas on "Tramp" is here also with Carla criticizing Otis of his hobo looks. They should've done more duets together like Marvin and Tammi. Too bad the duet of "Knock On Wood" isn't on here, but on this it looks like the bigger of the two hits was chosen. Just hearing Otis will make you a soul/R&B fan instantly.