Otis Redding

[albatrossumi]

For induction into Darrin's Recording Artist Hall of Fame...  Otis Redding

Ah, another standout performer from the Monterrey Pop Festival (last into DRAHoF was Janis Joplin).  I love that film...  and I really like when Otis Redding is up there singing "Try a Little Tenderness".

Of course, he died not long afterwards, tragically, in a plane crash.  He was only 26 years old.

Here are some Otis factoids:

- Otis Redding, the King of Soul, was born in the small town in Georgia.
 - His earliest influence was Little Richard, who was from the same town where Otis grew up.
 - He wrote many of his own songs, which was unusual for the time.

- Four members of The Bar-Kays were also killed when his Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1967. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined.

- "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was recorded only three days before Redding's death. Redding considered the song unfinished, having whistled the tune of one verse for which he intended to compose lyrics later. The song was released (with the place-holding whistling intact) in January 1968 and became Redding's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.