Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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REDDING, Otis

(b 9 September 1941, Dawson GA; d 12 December 1967, Madison WI) Soul singer; perhaps the greatest of male soul singers, the most popular black act of his time except for James Brown, and a fine songwriter as well. He was influenced by Little Richard and Sam Cooke; an early record 'Shout Bamalama' was in Richard's style; he worked for Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers in Macon (Richard's home town), drove Jenkins to a recording session at the then-new Stax label in Memphis: in one of those happy accidents that made the Stax label and sparked off Southern soul, the session did not go well and Redding was recorded at the tail end of it: first release was his own 'These Arms Of Mine', a top 20 R&B hit '63: he had 15 R&B hits during his lifetime, most in the top ten; the first record also reached the pop Hot 100 and he continued to cross over, but rarely into the top 40.

He had hits with the Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction' '66, Cooke's 'Shake' '67; co-wrote own hits including 'Mr Pitiful' '65 (with Stax guitarist Steve Cropper), 'I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)' (with Jerry Butler); wrote 'Respect' '65, an even bigger hit by Aretha Franklin '67. His appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival '67 was an intense experience for a largely white audience, captured on film and on the album Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix Experience on Reprise; the festival inspired the beautiful '(Sittin' On The) Dock Of The Bay' (co-written with Cropper) which reached no. 1 early '68 in both pop/R&B charts, but on the way to a gig his plane had crashed in the icy waters of one of Madison's lakes, also killing four members of his backing group the Bar-Kays.

Redding was evidently a heck of a guy who didn't need to show off; he did it all with his voice. People said that you felt better when he walked into the room. He was lucky in his manager, Phil Walden, himself at the beginning of his career in the music business, and in his wife, Zelma; they were teenagers when they got married but she turned out to be a strong woman and helpmate. A biography that appeared in 2001 caused lawsuits for defamation, but Mark Ribowsky's book Dreams To Remember (2015) looks like becoming a classic.

His albums included Pain In My Heart on Atco, Otis Blue on Volt '65; Dictionary Of Soul '66, King And Queen (duets with Carla Thomas included hit 'Tramp'), The Soul Album and Live In Europe '67, all on Stax; two-disc Best Of on Atlantic, Recorded Live released '82 on Atlantic. Remember Me was on Stax '96, everything else reissued on Rhino including four-CD The Definitive Otis Redding.