Otis Redding

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an influential American deep soul singer, best known for his passionate delivery and posthumous hit single, "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay." According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989) website, his name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America combinating gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying". He 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, becoming a local celebrity as a teenager after winning a local Sunday night talent show 15 weeks in a row. In 1960, he began touring the South with Johnny Jenkins and The Pinetoppers. In 1962, he made his first real mark in the music business during a Johnny Jenkins session when he recorded "These Arms of Mine", a ballad that he had written. The song became a minor hit on Volt Records, a subsidiary of renowned Stax, based in Memphis, TN. His manager was fellow Maconite Phil Walden (who later founded Capricorn Records). He continued to release for Stax/Volt, and built his fanbase by extensively touring a legendarily electrifying 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" (to become The Blues Brothers entrance theme music), "Try a Little Tenderness", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (written by the Rolling Stones), and "Respect" (later a smash hit for Aretha Franklin). He wrote many of his own songs, which was unusual for the time, often with Steve Cropper (of Stax house band Booker T. & the M.G.'s, who usually served as Otis' backing band in the studio). Soul singer Jerry Butler co-wrote another hit "I've Been Loving You Too Long". One of his few songs with a significant mainstream following was "Tramp" (1967) with Carla Thomas. Later that year, Redding played at the Monterey Pop Festival, which helped him to break into the white pop music scene. He and six others, including four of the six members of his backup band, The Bar-Kays, were killed when the plane on which they were travelling crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin on December 10, 1967. The two remaining members of The 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. Cauley said he had been asleep and recalled unbuckling his seat belt just before impact, which was his final recollection before finding himself in the frigid waters of the lake, grasping a seat cushion to keep himself afloat. Redding's body was recovered the next day from the lakebed. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined. He was 26 years old at the time of his death. He was laid to rest in a tomb on his private ranch in Round Oak, Georgia, 23 miles (37 km) north of Macon. "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" was recorded only three days prior to Redding's death. It was released the next month and became his first #1 single and first million-seller. The fact that "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" ultimately became Redding's greatest commercial success was unexpected, not only because its release came after his death, but also because the song is actually a significant stylistic departure from the bulk of his other work. It remains an R&B classic. Find out more at: http://www.otisredding.com/

Research info gathered from: www.wikipedia.org

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