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The Immortal Otis Redding (1968)

Where the lyrics of The Immortal Otis Redding take you, and where it was really made.

Only one of this album's eleven songs had been released before, and its sessions ended only days before Redding's death in December 1967.

Key places

Recorded in Memphis, December 1967 (1967)

Recording site Ardent Studios — Most tracks were recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, around 6 December 1967. The source does not name a specific studio, so this point marks the city only. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Immortal Otis Redding: posthumous studio album by the American soul recording artist Otis Redding
• Released June 15, 1968, by Atco Records
• Compiles 11 songs recorded in a three-week stretch of sessions
• The sessions concluded days before Redding's death in December 1967
• Only "The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)" had been released before, as a single in April 1968
• Four charting singles: "The Happy Song", "I've Got Dreams to Remember", "Amen", "Hard to Handle"
• Side A has six tracks and Side B has five

Background

• The album came out after Redding's death, so it is a compilation of material he left behind
• Almost all of the songs were new to the public in 1968
• Songwriting credits include Redding with Steve Cropper, Zelma Redding, Deanie Parker, Don Covay and Ray Charles

Recording

• Most tracks were recorded around 6 December 1967 in Memphis, Tennessee
• "The Happy Song" was recorded before 10 December 1967 in Memphis
• Band: Booker T. Jones and Isaac Hayes on keyboards, Steve Cropper on guitar and as producer, Donald Dunn on bass, Al Jackson Jr. on drums
• Horns: Wayne Jackson on trumpet, Andrew Love and Joe Arnold on tenor saxophone
• Redding provides all vocals

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Otis Ray Redding Jr. was born September 9, 1941 in Dawson, Georgia, and raised in Macon.
• He left school at 15 to support his family, performing in local talent contests and at Macon's Douglass Theatre.
• In 1958 he joined Johnny Jenkins' band, the Pinetoppers, touring the Southern states as singer and driver.
• A Stax Records session in 1962 led to a contract and his first hit, "These Arms of Mine".

Career

• His debut album Pain in My Heart was released by Stax in 1964; he later reached a wider pop audience.
• He performed at Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, toured Europe, and played the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967.
• "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was recorded shortly before his death and released January 1968, becoming his only Billboard Hot 100 number one.
• He died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967 in Lake Monona, near Madison, Wisconsin.
• He is known as the "King of Soul" and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Robert Christgau, writing for Creem in 1977, called the album his favorite by Redding
• Dave Marsh gave the album five stars in The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983)
• Lindsay Planer of AllMusic gave it three-and-a-half stars
• Planer said the songs were "welcome (if not mandatory) additions to all manner of listeners"

Reappraisal

• Christgau praised the album for showing the "unduplicated warmth, tenderness, and humor" of Redding's ballad singing
• The following year it was voted the 33rd best album ever in Paul Gambaccini's poll of prominent rock critics
• Christgau ranked it third in a list accompanying Gambaccini's book Rock Critics' Choice
• The album was included in "A Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)

Records

• Four songs charted as singles from the album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Redding died in December 1967, and this album came out in June 1968 as a posthumous collection
• It compiles 11 songs, and "The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)" was the only one released before the album
• The Happy Song was recorded before 10 December 1967 in Memphis, Tennessee
• Four songs from the album became charting singles, including "Amen" and "Hard to Handle"
• "Amen" is credited as a traditional song on the track listing

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org

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