Otis Redding
13 vinyl records found
Otis Redding was a Memphis soul singer whose open-throated delivery and raw emotional intensity defined the Stax Records sound in the 1960s. His influence stretched far beyond soul and R&B, shaping artists from Led Zeppelin to Janis Joplin, and his death in 1967 cut short a career that was just reaching mainstream crossover success.
About Otis Redding
Born in Georgia in 1941, Redding moved to Macon as a child and began performing in his early teens, working with Little Richard's backing band the Upsetters before joining Johnny Jenkins's Pinetoppers in 1958. An unscheduled appearance at a Stax recording session in Memphis led to his first single, These Arms of Mine, in 1962, launching a partnership with the label that would define his entire catalog. His lean, powerful style and distinctive use of vocal interjections became hallmarks of the Stax house sound, with his lean and powerful approach exemplifying what producer Stewart attributed partly to stress-induced intensity and stage shyness transformed into electrifying performance.
Redding built his reputation through relentless touring across the American South before expanding to the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles and international dates across Europe and at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. His breakthrough to pop audiences came through songs like Respect and Try a Little Tenderness, but his final recording, (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay with Steve Cropper, became his defining moment, hitting number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts after his death in a plane crash in December 1967. That tragedy devastated Stax Records and revealed a complicated rights situation: Atlantic Records' Atco division owned his entire song catalog, a discovery that compounded the label's financial troubles.
Redding's posthumous influence proved as substantial as his lifetime achievements. George Harrison cited Respect as inspiration for Drive My Car, The Rolling Stones named him a major influence, and virtually every soul and R&B musician who followed learned from his intensity and honesty. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, cementing his place as one of soul music's most recognized artists. The Groove Hunter currently tracks 10 editions of Redding's work, including The Best Of Otis Redding, Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings, Pain in My Heart, The Soul Album, Live At The Whisky A Go Go, and The Definitive Studio Album Co.
