Otis Redding - Stax Records Presents '2024

Tracks list

Tracklist:

1. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live / Set 1 / Friday, April 8, 1966) (04:43)
2. Respect (Alternate Take) (01:51)
3. (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay (Take 2) (02:42)
4. Try A Little Tenderness (Take 1) (04:00)
5. Mr. Pitiful (Live / Set 1 / Saturday, April 9, 1966) (03:02)
6. These Arms Of Mine (Live / Set 3 / Saturday, April 9, 1966) (03:15)
7. Shake [London] (02:41)
8. Pain In My Heart (Live / Set 1 / Friday, April 8, 1966) (02:16)
9. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (Live / Set 2 / Friday, April 8, 1966)
(05:45)
10. I've Got Dreams To Remember (Alternate Take) (03:33)
11. Remember Me (02:25)
12. Send Me Some Lovin' (02:13)
13. Pounds And Hundreds (Lbs + 100s) (02:14)
14. Day Tripper [London] (03:33)
15. Just One More Day (Live / Set 2 / Friday, April 8, 1966) (06:25)


 moreOtis Ray Redding, Jr. was born on September 9, 1941 in Dawson, Georgia.
His father was a sharecropper and part-time preacher who also worked at Robins
Air Force Base near Macon. When Otis was three, his family moved to Macon,
settling into the Tindall Heights housing project. He got his first experience
as a musician singing in the choir at Macon's Vineville Baptist Church, and as a
pre-teen, he learned to play guitar, piano, and drums. By the time Redding was
in high school, he was a member of the school band, and was regularly performing
as part of a Sunday Morning gospel broadcast on Macon's WIBB-AM. When he was 17,
Redding signed up to compete in a weekly teen talent show at Macon's Douglass
Theater; he ended up winning the $5.00 grand prize 15 times in a row before he
was barred from competition. Around the same time, Redding dropped out of school
and joined the Upsetters, the band that had backed up Little Richard before the
flamboyant piano man quit rock & roll to sing the gospel. Hoping to advance his
career, Redding moved to Los Angeles in 1960, where he honed his songwriting
chops and hooked up with a band called the Shooters. "She's Alright," credited
to the Shooters featuring Otis, was Redding's first single release, but he soon
returned to Macon, where he teamed up with guitarist Johnny Jenkins and his
group the Pinetoppers; Redding sang lead with the group and also served as
Jenkins' chauffeur, since the guitarist lacked a license to drive.

In early 1962, Otis Redding & the Pinetoppers issued a small label single, "Fat
Gal" b/w "Shout Bamalama," and a few months later, Jenkins was invited to record
some material for Stax Records, the up-and-coming R&B label based in Memphis,
Tennessee. Redding drove Jenkins to the studio and tagged along for the session;
Jenkins wasn't having a good day and ended up calling it quits early. With 40
minutes left on the session clock, Redding suggested they give one of his songs
a try, and with Jenkins on guitar, Otis and the studio band quickly completed a
take of "These Arms of Mine." Stax wasted no time signing Redding to their Volt
Records subsidiary, and "These Arms of Mine" was released in November 1962; the
single rose to number 20 on the R&B charts, and crossed over to the pop charts,
peaking at number 85. Redding's follow-up, "That's What My Heart Needs," arrived
the following October, and peaked at 27 on the R&B charts, but a stretch of
singles released in 1964 failed to make much of impression.

Redding's luck changed in 1965. In January of that year, he released "That's How
Strong My Love Is," which hit number 2 R&B and 71 Pop, while the B-side, "Mr.
Pitiful," also earned airplay, with the song going to 10 R&B and just missed
hitting the Pop Top 40, stalling at 41. Redding's masterful "I've Been Loving
You Too Long (To Stop Now)," issued in May 1965, shot to number 2 R&B, and
became his first single to make the Pop Top 40, peaking at 21. Redding landed
another crossover hit in September 1965, as his song "Respect" hit number four
R&B and 35 Pop. By this time, Redding was becoming more ambitious as an artist,
focusing on his songwriting skills, learning to play guitar, and becoming more
involved with the arrangements and production on his sessions, helping to craft
horn arrangements even though he couldn't write sheet music. He was also a
tireless live performer, touring frequently and making sure he upstaged the
other artists on the bill, as well as a savvy businessman, operating a
successful music publishing concern and successfully investing in real estate
and the stock market. In 1966, Redding also released two albums, The Great Otis
Redding Sings Soul Ballads and Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul; he
miraculously wrote and recorded most of the latter in a single day.

In 1966, Redding released a bold, impassioned cover of the Rolling Stones'
"Satisfaction" that was yet another R&B and Pop hit and led some to speculate
that perhaps Redding was the true author of the song. That same year, he was
honored by the NAACP, and played an extended engagement at the Whisky A Go Go on
Hollywood's Sunset Strip; he was the first major soul artist to play the
historic venue, and the buzz over his appearances helped boost his reputation
with white rock & roll fans. Later that year, Redding and several other Stax and
Volt Records artists were booked for a package tour of Europe and the United
Kingdom, where they were greeted as conquering heroes; the Beatles famously sent
a limousine to pick Redding up when he arrived at the airport for his London
gig. The British music magazine Melody Maker named Redding the Best Vocalist of
1966, an honor that had previously gone to Elvis Presley for ten consecutive
years. Redding released two strong and eclectic albums in 1966, The Soul Album
and Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, which found
him exploring contemporary pop tunes and old standards in his trademark soulful
style, and a cut from Dictionary of Soul, an impassioned interpretation of "Try
a Little Tenderness," became one of his biggest hits to date and a highlight of
his live shows.

In early 1967, Redding headed into the studio with fellow soul star Carla Thomas
to record a duet album, King & Queen, which spawned a pair of hits, "Tramp" and
"Knock on Wood." Redding also introduced a protege, vocalist Arthur Conley, and
a tune Redding produced for Conley, "Sweet Soul Music," became a million-selling
hit. After the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
took psychedelia to the top of the charts and became a clarion call for the
burgeoning hippie movement, Redding was inspired to write more thematically and
musically ambitious material, and he solidified his reputation with what he
called "the love crowd" with an electrifying performance at the Monterey Pop
Festival, where he handily won over the crowd despite being the only deep soul
artist on the bill. He next returned to Europe for more touring, and upon
returning began work on new material, including a song he regarded as a creative
breakthrough, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." Redding recorded the song at
the Stax Studio in December 1967, and a few days later he and his band set out
to play a string of dates in the Midwest. On December 10, 1967, Redding and his
band boarded his Beechcraft H18 airplane en route to Madison, Wisconsin for
another club date; the plane struggled in bad weather and crashed into Lake
Monona in Wisconsin's Dane County. The crash claimed the lives of Redding and
everyone else on board, except for Ben Cauley of the Bar-Kays. Redding was only
26 when he died.

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released in January 1968 and quickly
became Redding's biggest hit, topping both the Pop and R&B charts, earning two
Grammy awards, and maturing into a much-covered standard. An LP collection of
single sides and unreleased cuts, titled The Dock of the Bay, followed in
February 1968, and it was the first of a long string of albums compiled from the
material Redding cut in his seven-year recording career. In 1989, Redding was
inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he was granted membership into the
BMI Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, and he received the Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1999. © Mark Deming



Otis Redding - Stax Records Presents.rar - 294.9 MB

Related artists