Otis Redding

Otis Redding (1941 – 1967) was a highly influential soul singer from Georgia, USA. Along with others such as Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd and Carla Thomas, Redding was a key exponent of the raw and electrifying "Southern Fried" soul sounds coming from the Memphis-based stax/volt label. There were also similarities and interactions with atlantic artists such as Solomon Burke, Arthur Conley, Percy Sledge and Aretha Franklin.

Redding's death in an air crash, aged just 26, deprived soul music of one of its most promising stars. His biggest hit single, and a breakthrough to a mainstream audience, (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay, was released posthumously. Other notable tracks are I've Been Loving You Too Long, Try a Little Tenderness, Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song), Respect (also a big hit for Aretha Franklin), I Can't Turn You Loose, Mr Pitiful, Shake and Tramp (with Carla Thomas).

Unlike their Tamla Motown brethren, artists at Stax could still see cotton fields being worked outside the studio and were not as vigorously coached into "white acceptable" forms of expression by label policy. Thus, the concurrent Stax/Volt releases of the time tend to be less polished and formulaic, still managing to cross blurring color lines. Atlantic Records, based in New York, also did not try to 'manufacture' its artists in the Motown fashion.

Booker T. & The MG's were the main backing band of the Stax label, with the Bar-Kays filling the second slot. Ironically, it was the Bar-Kays who would join Otis in the fatal plane crash of 1967. The plane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin.