Everything about Otis Redding totally explained
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (
September 9,
1941 December 10,
1967) was an influential
American deep
soul singer. According to the website of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of
gospel and
rhythm & blues into a form of funky,
secular testifying."
Biography
Early life
Redding was born in the small town of
Dawson, Georgia. At the age of 5, he moved with his family to
Macon, Georgia. He sang in the choir of the Vineville
Baptist Church, and became somewhat of a local celebrity as a teenager after winning a local Sunday night talent show 15 weeks in a row.
Career
In
1960, Redding began touring the South with
Johnny Jenkins and The Pinetoppers, primarily as the group's driver. That same year he made his first recordings, "She's All Right" and "Shout Bamalama" with this group under the name "Otis and The Shooters".
In
1962, Redding made his first real mark in the music business during a Johnny Jenkins session when, during studio time left over, he recorded "These Arms of Mine", a ballad that he'd written. The song became a minor hit on
Volt Records, a subsidiary of the renowned
Southern soul label
Stax, based in
Memphis, Tennessee. His manager was a fellow Maconite,
Phil Walden (who later founded
Capricorn Records). Otis Redding continued to release for Stax/Volt, and built his fan base by extensively touring a live show with support from fellow Stax artists
Sam & Dave. Further hits between 1964 and 1966 included "Mr. Pitiful", "I Can't Turn You Loose" (which was to become
The Blues Brothers entrance theme music), "
Try a Little Tenderness" (a remake of the
1930s standard by
Harry Woods, Jimmy Campbell, and Reg Connelly, later featured in
John Hughes' film
Pretty in Pink), "
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (written by
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards of
the Rolling Stones), and "
Respect" (later a smash hit for
Aretha Franklin).
Redding wrote many of his own songs, which was unusual for the time, often with
Steve Cropper (of the Stax house band
Booker T. & the M.G.'s, who usually served as Otis's backing band in the studio). Soul singer
Jerry Butler co-wrote another hit, "
I've Been Loving You Too Long". One of Redding's few songs with a significant mainstream following was "Tramp" (1967) (a duet with
Carla Thomas).
In 1967 Redding played at the
Monterey Pop Festival, which helped him to break into the white pop music scene.
Death
Redding, his manager, the pilot, and four members of his backup band,
The Bar-Kays, were killed when his chartered plane crashed into
Lake Monona in
Madison, Wisconsin, on
December 10,
1967. The two remaining Bar-Kays were
Ben Cauley and
James Alexander. Cauley was the only person aboard Redding's plane to survive the crash. Alexander was on another plane, since there were eight members in Redding's party and the chartered plane could only hold seven, and it was Alexander's turn in the rotation to take a commercial flight. Cauley reported that he'd been asleep until just seconds before impact, and recalled that upon waking he saw bandmate
Phalon Jones look out a window and say, "Oh, no!" Cauley said the last thing he remembered before the crash was unbuckling his seatbelt. He then found himself in the frigid waters of the lake, grasping a seat cushion to keep afloat.
Redding's body was recovered the next day when the lake bed was searched. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined.
Redding was 26 years old at the time of his death. He was entombed on his private ranch in Round Oak, Georgia, 23 miles (37 km) north of Macon.
In
1975, Macon
Mayor Ronnie Thompson, a fellow musician and a friend of Redding's, commissioned Redding's portrait. The acclaimed picture went missing in
2007 during the transition between Mayors
C. Jack Ellis and
Robert Reichert.
Posthumous releases
"
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was recorded only three days before Redding's death. He considered it unfinished, having whistled the tune of one verse that he intended to compose lyrics for later. The song was released (with the place-holding whistling intact) in January 1968 and became Redding's only number-one single on the
Billboard Hot 100. "
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" indicated a significant stylistic departure from the bulk of his other work.
Shortly after Redding's death, Atlantic Records, distributor of the Stax/Volt releases, was purchased by
Warner Bros. Stax was required to renegotiate its distribution deal, and found that Atlantic actually owned the entire Stax/Volt back catalog.
Redding had recorded a massive amount of material in late 1967 just before his death (it was from these sessions that "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" emerged). Atlantic had enough material for three new Redding studio albums -
The Immortal Otis Redding (1968),
Love Man (1969), and
Tell the Truth (1970) - which were all issued on Atlantic's
Atco Records.
Rolling Stone ranked Redding #21 on their list of the
100 Greatest Artists of All Time
.
In
2002, the city of Macon honored its native son, unveiling a memorial statue of Redding in the city's Gateway Park. The
Rhythm and Blues Foundation named Redding as the recipient of its 2006 Legacy Award.
In
September 2007, the first official DVD anthology of Redding's live performances was released by
Concord Music Group, the current owners of the Stax catalog. The DVD, entitled
Dreams To Remember: The Legacy of Otis Redding, featured 16 classic full-length performances and 40 minutes of new interviews documenting Redding's life and career.
In popular culture
- Beginning with their 1993-1994 performances of the song Hey Nineteen, the band Steely Dan replaced the phrase "Hey Nineteen/That's Aretha Franklin/She don't remember/Queen of Soul" with "Hey Nineteen/That's Otis Redding/She don't remember/King of Soul." While singing the song in the Two Against Nature tour of 2000, Donald Fagen often left the name attribution blank for the singing-along audiences to fill in, and when most of them sang "Aretha Franklin," he corrected them by saying, "No, that's Otis Redding."
- The Doors, fans of Redding, added this verse before "Runnin' Blue": "Poor Otis dead and gone, left me here to sing his song. Pretty little girl with the red dress on, Poor Otis dead and gone." Singer Jim Morrison had been singing those lines on their tour the year before.
- The Righteous Brothers song "Rock and Roll Heaven" features the verse: "Otis brought us all to the dock of the bay", a tribute to Redding and his song "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
- A likeness of Redding appears as an evil version of himself in Nightmares & Dreamscapes, adapted from Stephen King's short story You Know They Got a Hell of a Band. Redding is portrayed as a police officer in the town of Rock N Roll Heaven, which is populated by late rock and roll legends.
- Steve Perry made mention of Otis Redding in his 1984 song "Captured by the Moment" with the line "Otis replied, a little tenderness we got to try.", a reference to the Redding song "Try a Little Tenderness"
- 1986's Pretty In Pink featured Duckie (Jon Cryer) dancing and singing along to "Try a Little Tenderness". He states his admiration for Otis.
- 1986's Top Gun features Pete Mitchell/Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Charlotte Blackwood/Charlie (Kelly McGillis) listening to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay". Pete states that while he was still a youth, after his father died in combat, his grieving mother would call for Pete, and requested him to keep playing the same records over again, and "The Dock of the Bay" was on one of those records.
- The band Okkervil River wrote a song called "Listening to Otis Redding at Home during Christmas" on their album Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See.
- Redding's sons Dexter and Otis III, together with cousin Mark Locket, founded the funk/disco-band The Reddings in 1978.
- The song "Hard to Handle" was covered by The Black Crowes on their 1990 debut album Shake Your Money Maker.
- Redding's music was heavily featured in the 1991 film The Commitments, including "Mr Pitiful", "Try a Little Tenderness" and "Hard to Handle".
- In 1997, on their album Midwestern Songs of the Americas the Minneapolis punk quartet Dillinger Four paid tribute to Otis Redding in the song "Doublewhiskeycokenoice" with these lyrics: "God save Otis Redding because I know he's never gone". This song also contains a sample from the song "Stay in School", in which Redding speaks: "Hi, this is the big O. I was just standing here thinking about you, thought I'd write a song about you, and dedicate it to you. Take a listen."
- The 2000 Everclear album,, features a song titled "Otis Redding", which contains the lyric, "I wish I could sing like Otis Redding, I wish I could play this guitar in tune."
- In 2005, a sample from "It's Too Late" appeared on the track "Gone" from Kanye West.
- In 2007, Redding was referenced in the song "Been There Before" by the band Hanson. The lyrics, "With a young man sitting/ On a dock off the bay/ He took a longterm trip/ On a first class plane/ Now the whole world listens/ To that one man's song" reference Redding's recording of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" before his plane crash.
- In the 1988 movie Bull Durham, the character Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), sings the wrong words to "Try a Little Tenderness" (thinking the line "young girls, they do get weary" is actually "young girls, they do get woolly"), leading Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) to angrily correct him.
Discography
Albums
Albums released posthumously
Other albums
1971 - Monterey International Pop Festival - Otis Redding/The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Reprise) US: #16
1972 - The Best of Otis Redding US: #76
1992 - Remember Me (Stax)
1993 - In Concert (Stax)
1993 - Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding (Rhino 4D Boxed Set)
1993 - The Very Best of Otis Redding, Vol. 1
1995 - The Very Best of Otis Redding, Vol. 2
2002 - Very Best of Otis Redding UK: #26
2006 - Stax Profiles (Stax)
Singles
All singles issued on Volt Records unless otherwise noted.
Singles released posthumously
All singles issued on Atco Records unless otherwise noted.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Otis Redding'.
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