Otis Redding: The greatest singers in popular music.

Otis Redding in 1966

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in popular music and a major artist in soul music and rhythm and blues.
His singing style has been influential among the soul artists of 1960s and helped exemplify the Stax Sound. After appearing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he wrote and recorded "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" with Steve Cropper. The song became the first posthumous number-one record on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts after his death in a plane crash. The Dock of the Bay became the first posthumous album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.

Born and raised in Georgia, United States, Redding left school at age 15 to support his family by working with Little Richard's backing band, the Upsetters and by performing at talent shows for prize money. In 1958, he joined Johnny Jenkins' band, the Pinetoppers, and toured the Southern United States as driver and musician. An unscheduled appearance on a Stax recording session led to a contract and his first single, "These Arms of Mine", in 1962. Stax released Redding's debut album, Pain in My Heart, two years later.

Initially popular mainly with African Americans, Redding later reached the broader American popular music audience. He and his group first played small gigs in the South, then played for the first time in the western United States, at the Whisky a Go Go. Redding later performed in Paris, London and other European cities. His premature death devastated Stax, already on the verge of bankruptcy. The label soon discovered that Atlantic Records owned the rights to Redding's entire catalog. Redding received many posthumous accolades, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He received the honorific "King of Soul". In addition to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," "Respect" and "Try a Little Tenderness" are among his most well-known songs.

Early life

Redding was born in Dawson, Georgia to gospel singer Otis Redding, Sr., and housekeeper Fannie Redding. His father worked as a sharecropper, then at Robins Air Force Base and as a part-time preacher. When Redding was three, the family moved to Tindall Heights, a predominantly African American public housing project in nearby Macon. For a short time they lived in a small house in Bellevue, a neighborhood in west Macon. That house burned down and the family moved back to Tindall. At an early age, he sang in the Vineville Baptist Church choir and learned guitar and piano. From age 10, he took drum and singing lessons. At Ballard-Hudson High School, he sang in the school band. Every Sunday he earned $6 by performing gospel songs for Macon radio station WIBB. His passion was singing, and he often cited Little Richard and Sam Cooke as main influences; Redding "would not be here" without Richard, as he "entered the music business because of Richard – he is my inspiration. I used to sing like Little Richard, his Rock 'n' Roll stuff... My present music has a lot of him in it."

At age 15, Redding abandoned school to help his family financially. His father had contracted tuberculosis and was often hospitalized, leaving his mother as the family's primary financial provider. He later worked as a well digger, gas station attendant and guest musician in the following years. The pianist Gladdy Williams, a well-known Macon musician and another inspiration for Redding, often performed at Hillview Springs Social Club, where he sometimes played piano with her bands. When she hosted talent shows on Sundays, Redding accompanied his friends from the neighborhood, such as Little Willie Jones and bassist Eddie Ross.

Around the time when his tonsils were removed, Redding doubted he would ever be able to sing, but his father encouraged him. Redding's breakthrough came in 1958 on disc jockey Hamp Swain's "The Teenage Party", a music contest at the Roxy and Douglass Theatres. As his backing band was not professional, gig attendee Johnny Jenkins offered help. Redding sang Little Richard's "Heebie Jeebies". The combination enabled him to win the $5 singing contest for 15 consecutive weeks. Jenkins later worked as lead guitarist and played with Redding during several gigs. Soon afterwards, he was invited to replace Willie Jones, frontman of Pat T. Cake and the Mighty Panthers, featuring Jenkins. He was soon hired by the Upsetters as Richard abandoned rock and roll in favour of gospel music. Redding was well paid at about $25 per gig, but did not stay for long.

At age 19, Redding met 15-year-old Zelma Atwood at "The Teenage Party". She gave birth to their son Dexter in the summer of 1960 and married Redding in August 1961. In mid-1960, he moved to Los Angeles with his sister, Deborah, and wrote his first songs including "She's Allright", "Tuff Enuff", "Gamma Lamma", and "Gettin' Hip", which was his first composition to be released as a single.

Career

Early career

A member of Pat T. Cake and the Mighty Panthers, Redding toured the Southern United States on the Chitlin' circuit. These venues were the only ones available for African American musicians during the era of racial segregation that lasted into the early 1960s. Jenkins left the band to become the featured artist with the Pinetoppers. Around this time, Redding met Phil Walden, the future founder of the recording company Phil Walden and Associates, and later Bobby Smith, who ran the small label Confederate Records. He signed with Confederate and recorded his second single, "Shout Bamalama" (a rewrite of "Gamma Lamma") and "Fat Girl", together with his band Otis and the Shooters. Around this time he and the Pinetoppers attended a "Battle of the Bands" show in Lakeside Park. Wayne Cochran, the only solo artist signed to Confederate, became the Pinetoppers' bassist.

When Walden started to look for a record label for Jenkins, Atlantic Records representative Joe Galkin showed interest and around 1962 sent him to a Stax studio in Memphis. Redding drove Jenkins to the session, as the latter did not have a driver's license. Jenkins, backed by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, performed on that session which ended early; Redding was allowed to perform two songs. The first was "Hey Hey Baby", which studio chief Jim Stewart thought sounded too much like Little Richard. The second was "These Arms of Mine", featuring Jenkins on piano and Steve Cropper on guitar. Stewart later praised Redding's performance noting, "Everybody was fixin' to go home, but Joe Galkin insisted we give Otis a listen. There was something different about [the ballad]. He really poured his soul into it." Stewart signed Redding and released "These Arms of Mine", with "Hey Hey Baby" on the B-side. The single was released on Volt on October 1962, but charted in March the following year. It became one of his most successful songs, selling more than 800,000 copies.

Apollo Theater and Otis Blue

"These Arms of Mine" and other songs from the 1962–1963 sessions were included on Redding's debut album, Pain in My Heart. "That's What My Heart Needs" and "Mary's Little Lamb" were recorded in June 1963. The latter is the only Redding track with both background singing and brass. It became his worst-selling single. The title track, recorded in September of 1963, sparked copyright issues, as it sounded like Irma Thomas' "Ruler of My Heart". Despite this, Pain in My Heart was released on January 1, 1964 and peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 85 on the R&B chart.

In November 1963, Redding and his brother Rodgers accompanied former boxer Sylvester Huckaby to the Apollo Theater in New York to record a live album for Atlantic, entitled T'Ain't Nothin' To Me. Redding and his band were paid $400 per week, but had to pay $450 to King Curtis' band for the arrangement sheets, leaving them in financial difficulty. The trio asked Walden for money. Huckaby explained their circumstances living in the rundown Theresa Hotel in Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music. He noted meeting Muhammad Ali and other celebrities. Ben E. King, who performed with Redding at the Apollo, gave him $100 when he learned about Redding's situation. The resulting album featured King, the Coasters, Doris Troy, Rufus Thomas, the Falcons and Redding. T'Ain't Nothin' To Me finally brought Redding some financial success. Around this time Walden and Rodgers were drafted by the army; Walden's younger brother Alan joined Redding on tour, while Earl "Speedo" Sims replaced Rodgers.

The majority of Redding songs after "Security", a song from his first album, had a slow tempo. Disc jockey A. C. Moohah Williams accordingly labeled him "Mr. Pitiful", and subsequently Cropper and Redding wrote the eponymous song. That and top 100 singles "Chained And Bound", "Come To Me" and "That's How Strong My Love Is" were included on Redding's second studio album, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, released in March 1965. Jenkins began working independently from the group out of fear Galkin, Walden and Cropper would plagiarize his playing style, and so Cropper became Redding's leading guitarist. Around 1965, Redding co-wrote "I've Been Loving You Too Long" with the Impressions lead singer Jerry Butler. That summer, Redding and the studio crew arranged new songs for his next album. Ten of the eleven songs were written over 24 hours during July 9–10 in Memphis. Two songs, "Ole Man Trouble" and "Respect", had been finished earlier during the Otis Blue session. "Respect" and "I've Been Loving You" were later recut in stereo. The album, entitled Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul, was released in September 1965.

Whisky a Go Go and "Try a Little Tenderness"

Redding's success allowed him to buy a 300-acre (1.2 km2) ranch in Georgia, which he called the "Big O Ranch." Stax was also doing well. Walden signed more musicians, including Percy Sledge, Johnnie Taylor, Clarence Carter and Eddie Floyd, and together with Redding they founded two production companies. "Jotis Records" (derived from Joe Galkin and Otis) released four recordings, two by Arthur Conley and one by Billy Young and Loretta Williams. The other was named Redwal Music (derived from Redding and Walden), which has been shut down shortly after its creation. Since Afro-Americans still formed the majority of fans, Redding chose to perform at Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Redding was one of the first soul artists to perform in the western United States. His performance received critical acclaim, including positive press in the Los Angeles Times and he penetrated mainstream popular culture. Bob Dylan attended the performance and offered Redding an altered version of one of his songs, "Just Like a Woman".

In late 1966, Redding returned to the Stax studio. At this session he recorded tracks including "Try a Little Tenderness", originally written by Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly and Harry M. Woods in 1932. This song had previously been covered by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, and the publishers unsuccesfully tried to stop Redding from recording the song from a "negro perspective'. Today often considered his signature song, Jim Stewart reckoned, "If there's one song, one performance that really sort of sums up Otis and what he's about, it's 'Try a Little Tenderness'. That one performance is so special and so unique that it expresses who he is." On this version Redding was backed by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, while staff producer Isaac Hayes worked on the arrangement. "Try a Little Tenderness" was included on his next album, Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul. The song and the album were critically and commercially successful—the former peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at number 4 on the R&B chart.

The spring of 1966 marked the first time that Stax booked concerts for its artists. The majority of the group arrived in London on March 13, but Redding had flown in days earlier for interviews, such as at the "The Eamonn Andrews Show". When the crew arrived in London, the Beatles sent a limousine to pick them up. Booking agent Bill Graham proposed that Redding play at the Fillmore Auditorium in late 1966. The gig was commercially and critically successful, paying Redding around $800 to $1000 a night. It prompted Graham to remark afterwards, "That was the best gig I ever put on in my entire life." Redding began touring Europe six months later.

Carla Thomas

A year after the Fillmore, Redding released the gold record-winning album King & Queen, with Carla Thomas. It was Jim Stewart's idea to produce a duet album, as he expected that "[Redding's] rawness and [Thomas'] sophistication would work". The album was recorded in January 1967, while Thomas was earning her M.A. in English at Howard University. Six out of ten songs were cut during their joint session; the rest were overdubbed by Redding in the days following, due to concert obligations. Three singles were lifted from the album: "Tramp" was released in April, followed by "Knock on Wood" and "Lovey Dovey". All three reached at least the top 60 on both the R&B and Pop charts. The album charted at number 5 and 36 on the Billboard Pop and R&B charts, respectively.

Redding returned to Europe to perform at the Paris Olympia. The live album Otis Redding: Live in Europe was released three months later, featuring this and other live performances in London and Stockholm, Sweden. Redding was criticized for his arrogant and contrived performances in these concerts. His decision to take his protege Conley (whom Redding and Walden had contracted directly to Atco/Atlantic Records rather than to Stax/Volt) on the tour, instead of more established Stax/Volt artists such as Rufus Thomas and William Bell, produced negative reactions.

Monterey Pop

In 1967, Redding performed at the influential Monterey Pop Festival as the closing act on Saturday night, the second day of the festival. He was invited through the efforts of promoter Jerry Wexler. Until that point, Redding was still performing mainly for black audiences. His act, which included his own song "Respect" and a version of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction", was well received by the audience. Redding and his backing band (Booker T. & the M.G.'s with the Mar-Keys horn section) opened with Cooke's "Shake" before he delivered an impulsive speech in which he asked the audience if they were the "love crowd", looking for a big response. The ballad "I've Been Loving You" followed. The last song was "Try a Little Tenderness", including an additional chorus. "I got to go, y'all, I don't wanna go", said Redding and left the stage of his last major concert. According to Booker T. Jones, "I think we did one of our best shows, Otis and the MG's. That we were included in that was also something of a phenomenon. That we were there? With those people? They were accepting us and that was one of the things that really moved Otis. He was happy to be included and it brought him a new audience. It was greatly expanded in Monterey." According to Sweet Soul Music, musicians such as Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix were captivated by his performance; Robert Christgau wrote in Esquire, "The Love Crowd screamed one's mind to the heavens."

After Monterey, Redding wanted to record with Conley, but Stax was against the idea. The two moved from Memphis to Macon to continue writing. The result was "Sweet Soul Music", based on Cooke's "Yeah Man". It peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. By that time Redding had developed polyps on his larynx, which he tried to treat with tea and lemon or honey. He was hospitalized in September 1967 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York to undergo surgery.

Dock of the Bay

In the winter of 1967, Redding again recorded at Stax. One new song was "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", which was written with Cropper while they were staying with their friend, Earl "Speedo" Sims, on a houseboat in Sausalito. Redding was inspired by the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and tried to create a similar sound against the label's wishes. His wife Zelma disliked its atypical melody. The Stax crew were also dissatisfied with the new sound; Stewart thought that it was not R&B, while bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn feared it would damage Stax's reputation. However, Redding wanted to expand his musical style and thought it was his best song and correctly believed it would top the charts. Redding whistled at the end, either forgetting Cropper's "fadeout rap", or paraphrasing it intentionally.

Death

By 1967 the band was traveling to gigs on Redding's Beechcraft H18. Late that year they flew to Nashville, and on December 9, 1967, appeared on the Upbeat television show produced in Cleveland. They played three concerts in two nights at a small club called Leo's Casino. After a phone call with Zelma and children, Redding's next stop was Madison, Wisconsin. On the next day they were to play at the Factory nightclub near the University of Wisconsin.

Although the weather was poor, with heavy rain and fog and despite warnings, the plane took off. Four miles from their destination at Truax Field in Madison, the pilot radioed for permission to land. Shortly thereafter, the plane crashed into Lake Monona. Bar-Kays member Ben Cauley, the accident's only survivor, was sleeping shortly before the accident. He woke just before impact to see bandmate Phalon Jones look out a window and exclaim, "Oh, no!" Cauley said the last thing he remembered before the crash was unbuckling his seat belt. He then found himself in frigid water, grasping a seat cushion to keep afloat. A non-swimmer, he was unable to rescue the others. The cause of the crash was never determined. James Brown claimed in his autobiography, The Godfather of Soul, that he had warned Redding not to fly.

Aretha Franklin stated, "I heard it on the TV. My sister Caroline and I stopped everything and stayed glued to the TV and radio. It was a tragedy. Shocking." Other victims were pilot Richard Fraser, drummer Matthew Kelly, lead guitarist of the Bar-Kays Jimmy King, tenor saxophonist Phalon Jones, organist Ronnie Caldwell and drummer Carl Cunningham.

Redding's body was recovered the next day when the lake bed was searched. The family postponed the funeral from December 15 to December 18 so that more could attend. The service took place at the City Auditorium in Macon. More than 4,500 people came to the funeral, overflowing the 3,000-seat hall, although many did not know who he was. Johnny Jenkins and Isaac Hayes did not come, fearing their reaction would be worse than Zelma Redding's. Redding was entombed at his ranch in Round Oak, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Macon. Jerry Wexler delivered the eulogy. Redding died just three days after recording Dock of the Bay. He was survived by Zelma and three children, Otis III, Dexter and Karla. Otis, Dexter and cousin Mark Lockett later founded the Reddings, a band managed by Zelma. She also maintained or worked at the janitorial service Maids Over Macon, several nightclubs and booking agencies. In November 8, 1997, a memorial plaque was placed on the lakeside deck of the Madison convention center, Monona Terrace.

Posthumous releases and proposed recordings

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released in January 1968 and became Redding's only single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and the first posthumous number-one single in US chart history. It sold approximately four million copies worldwide and received more than eight million airplays. The album The Dock of the Bay was the first posthumous album to reach the top spot on the UK Albums Chart.

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 was surprised to learn that Atlantic actually owned the entire Stax/Volt catalog. Stax was unable to regain the rights to its recordings and severed its Atlantic relationship. Atlantic also held the rights to all unreleased Otis Redding masters. It had enough material for three studio albums—The Immortal Otis Redding (1968), Love Man (1969), and Tell the Truth (1970)—all issued on its Atco Records. A number of successful singles emerged from these LPs, among them "Amen" (1968), "Hard to Handle" (1968), "I've Got Dreams to Remember" (1968), "Love Man" (1969), and "Look at That Girl" (1969). Singles were also lifted from two live Atlantic-issued Redding albums, In Person at the Whisky a Go Go, recorded in 1966 and issued in 1968 on Atco, and Monterey International Pop Festival, a Reprise Records release featuring some of the live Monterey Pop Festival performances of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on side one and Redding's performance on side two.

In September 2007, the first official DVD anthology of Redding's live performances was released by Concord Music Group, then owners of the Stax catalog. Dreams To Remember: The Legacy of Otis Redding featured 16 full-length performances and 40 minutes of new interviews documenting his life and career. On May 18, 2010, Stax Records released a two-disc recording of three complete sets from his Whisky a Go Go date in April 1966.

Carla Thomas claimed that the pair had planned to record another duet album in December the same year, but Phil Walden denied this. Redding had proposed to record an album featuring cut and rearranged songs in different tempos; for example, ballads would be uptempo and vice versa. Another suggestion was to record an album entirely consisting of country standards.

Legacy

"Otis Redding Sittin on the Dock of the Bay", statue in Gateway Park by Bradley Cooley
and Bradley Cooley, Jr of Bronze By Cooley, 2003

Otis Redding has been called the "King of Soul", an honorific also given to Brown and Cooke. He remains one of the genre's most recognized artists. His lean and powerful style exemplified the Stax Sound, and gave Stax a new identity; he was said to be its "heart and soul", while artists such as Al Jackson, Dunn and Cropper helped to expand its structure. His open-throated singing, the tremolo/vibrato, the manic, electrifying stage performances and perceived honesty were particular hallmarks, along with the use of interjections, for example "gotta, gotta, gotta", some of which came from Cooke. Producer Stewart thought the "begging singing" was stress-induced and enhanced by Redding's extreme, early shyness.

Artists from many genres named Redding as a musical influence. George Harrison called "Respect" an important influence for "Drive My Car". The Rolling Stones also mentioned Redding as an important influence. Other artists include Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Doors; and virtually every soul/R&B musicians from the early years, such as Al Green, Etta James, William Bell, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Conley. Musicians have covered or mixed his songs, most recently Kanye West and Jay-Z with their Grammy Award-winning song "Otis". According to band colleague Sam Andrew, Janis Joplin was influenced by his singing style. She stated that she learned "to push a song instead of just sliding over it" after hearing Redding.

Awards and honors

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 1989, declaring Redding's name to be "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." Readers of the British music newspaper Melody Maker voted him as the top vocalist of 1967, superseding Elvis Presley, who had topped the list for the prior 10 years. In 1988, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Five years later, the United States Post Office issued a 29-cent commemorative postage stamp in his honor. Redding was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, and in 1999 he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed three Redding recordings, "Shake", "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", and "Try a Little Tenderness," among its list of "The 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll." American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Redding at number 21 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and eighth on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". Q ranked Redding fourth among "100 Greatest Singers", after only Frank Sinatra, Franklin and Presley.