Otis Redding: “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay”
From the album: The Dock of the Bay
Released January 1968
#1 Pop single, #1 R&B single

It rolls in with the sound and the rhythm of the ocean tide, a soft liquid hissing full of power and grandeur, irrepressible and timeless. It closes with an almost Chaplinesque silhouette, a solitary man whistling, at peace with himself and with his place in life, even as life moves on.

Otis Redding came to Stax in 1962 as a member of Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers, who drove from Georgia to Memphis to record for Stax. Redding was also able to record a few songs of his own during this session and the results included his first single, “These Arms of Mine.” Redding’s gruff and strong voice, with resounding echoes of gospel churches and backcountry woods, was a Stax staple thereafter. “Tramp,” his famous 1967 duet with Stax labelmate Carla Thomas, even makes fun of the country roots that Redding never left behind: “You’re country! You’re straight from the Georgia woods. You wear overalls!” (You can hear his “Georgia” pronunciation of the line-ending words “in” and “again” to end the first verse of “Bay.”)

1967 proved the watershed year. His performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was rivaled only by the explosion detonated by the incendiary Jimi Hendrix. After this festival, Redding rented a houseboat on the Monterey Peninsula and contemplated his next move.

That next move was recorded the first week of December 1967. “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” reflected Redding’s geographic and spiritual circumstances, an exquisitely personal rumination upon both man and music co-composed with Redding’s frequent songwriting partner, guitarist Steve Cropper. It featured one of soul music’s most heartfelt bridges, turns a nearly perfect phrase with “This loneliness won’t leave me alone,” and rocks steady as that ocean tide by Duck Dunn’s loping, almost Bolero, bassline.

Performances were booked throughout 1968, including Constitution Hall (Washington, DC), Philharmonic Hall (New York), The Smothers Brothers Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, even Redding’s own television special.

Otis Redding was killed on December 10, 1967. The plane flying Redding and his band to a concert in Madison, Wisconsin, crashed into frozen Lake Monona. Redding, his manager, and four members of his band, the Bar-Kays, perished. Redding was 26.

“(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” won two Grammy Awards in 1968, one for Redding for Best Male Vocal R&B Performance and one for Redding and Cropper for Best R&B Song. It posthumously topped both the Pop and R&B charts.

As one of Redding’s dearest musical companions, Cropper compiled last year’s Stax Profiles: Otis Redding. “I have always said,” wrote Cropper in its notes, “if you took a half jar of Little Richard and a half jar of Sam Cooke and mixed them together, you would come out with a full jar of Otis Redding.”

When you hear that peaceful whistle today, full of quiet hope and resolve, it is nearly impossible to not wonder what other wonders might have been.

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