THE GREAT OTIS REDDING SINGS SOUL BALLADS (1965)
Otis Redding's second LP only has one major hit on it -- his signature tune, "Mr. Pitiful" -- but it is a bolder effort than its predecessor, and it also has Redding's original of "That's How Strong My Love Is", which became well known (to the tune of millions of sales) in the hands of the Rolling Stones. Among the less familiar fare, "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend" is a very sweet and compelling blues-based number, while "Your One And Only Man" catches Redding in a jaunty, strutting mode, supported by Steve Cropper's crunchy, slashing guitar and the Mar-Keys' horns; "For Your Precious Love" is a slow, mournful ballad lament that builds in intensity, Bolero-like. And "Chained And Bound" is a compelling mix of blues and gospel-style singing that holds its own in those surroundings.

1 - That's How Strong My Love Is
2 - Chained and Bound
3 - A Woman, a Lover, a Friend
4 - Your One and Only Man
5 - Nothing Can Change This Love
6 - It's Too Late
7 - For Your Precious Love
8 - I Want to Thank You
9 - Come to Me
10 - Home in Your Heart
11 - Keep Your Arms Around Me
12 - Mr. Pitiful




OTIS BLUE (1966)
Otis Redding's third album, and his first fully realized album, presents his talent unfettered, his direction clear, and his confidence emboldened, with fully half the songs representing a reach that extended his musical grasp. More than a quarter of this album is given over to Redding's versions of songs by Sam Cooke, his idol, who had died the previous December, and all three are worth owning and hearing. Two of them, "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Shake," are every bit as essential as any soul recordings ever made, and while they (and much of this album) have reappeared on several anthologies, it's useful to hear the songs from those sessions juxtaposed with each other, and with "Wonderful World," which is seldom compiled elsewhere.

Also featured are Redding's spellbinding renditions of "Satisfaction" (a song epitomizing the fully formed Stax/Volt sound and which Mick Jagger and Keith Richards originally wrote in tribute to and imitation of Redding's style), "My Girl," and "You Don't Miss Your Water." "Respect" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long," two originals that were to loom large in his career, are here as well; the former became vastly popular in the hands of Aretha Franklin and the latter was an instant soul classic. Among the seldom-cited jewels here is a rendition of B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby" that has the singer sharing the spotlight with Steve Cropper, his playing alternately elegant and fiery, with Wayne Jackson and Gene "Bowlegs" Miller's trumpets and Andrew Love's and Floyd Newman's saxes providing the backing. Redding's powerful, remarkable singing throughout makes Otis Blue gritty, rich, and achingly alive, and an essential listening experience.

1 - Ole Man Trouble
2 - Respect
3 - Change Is Gonna Come
4 - Down in the Valley
5 - I've Been Loving You Too Long
6 - Shake
7 - My Girl
8 - Wonderful World
9 - Rock Me Baby
10 - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
11 - You Don't Miss Your Water




THE SOUL ALBUM (1966)
Otis Redding's talent began to surge, across songs and their stylesand absorbing them , with the recording of The Soul Album. In contrast to The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, which was an advance over its predecessor but still a body of 12 songs of varying styles and textures, rising to peaks and never falling before an intense, soulful mid-range, The Soul Album shows him moving from strength to strength in a string of high-energy, sweaty soul performances, interspersing his own songs with work by Sam Cooke ("Chain Gang"), Roy Head ("Treat Her Right"), Eddie Floyd ("Everybody Makes A Mistake"), and Smokey Robinson ("It's Growing") and recasting them in his own style, so that they're not "covers" so much as reinterpretations; indeed, "Chain Gang" is almost a rewrite of the original, though one suspects not one that Cooke would have disapproved of. He still had a little way to go as a songwriter -- the jewel of this undervalued collection is "Cigarettes And Coffee, co-authored by Eddie Thomas and Jerry Butler -- but as an interpreter he was now without peer, and his albums were now showing this remarkable, stunningly high level of consistency. Also significant on this album was the contribution of Steve Cropper, not only on guitar but as co-author of three songs. Further, as revealed in the remastered Rhino CD, Stax Records was starting to put more into his LPs in thew recording, taking more time and delivering a better, fuller sound than on the two preceding albums, especially where Al Jackson's drums and the Mar-Keys' horns are concerned.

1 - Just One More Day
2 - It's Growing
3 - Cigarettes and Coffee
4 - Chain Gang
5 - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
6 - Good to Me
7 - Scratch My Back
8 - Treat Her Right
9 - Everybody Makes a Mistake
10 - Any Ole Way
11 - 634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)




DICTIONARY OF SOUL (1966)
Recorded and released in 1966, Otis Redding's fifth album, Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul found the rugged-voiced deep soul singer continuing to expand the boundaries of his style while staying true to his rough and passionate signature sound. Redding's ambitious interpretations of "Tennessee Waltz" and especially "Try A Little Tenderness" found him approaching material well outside the traditional boundaries of R&B and allowing his emotionally charged musical personality to take them to new and unexpected places, and while his cover of "Day Tripper" wasn't his first attempt to confront the British Invasion, his invigorating and idiosyncratic take on The Beatles' cynical pop tune proved Redding's view of the pop music universe was broader than anyone might have expected at the time. While Redding's experiments with covers on this set were successful and satisfying, it was on his own material that he sounded most at home, and "My Lover's Prayer" and "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" are deep Southern soul at its finest, with Redding's forceful but lovelorn voice delivering an Academy Award-worthy performance. And once again, the Stax house band (centered around Booker T. and the MG's and The Memphis Horns) prove themselves both thoroughly distinctive and remarkably adaptable, fitting to the nooks and crannies of Redding's voice with their supple but muscular performances. With the exception of his duet album with Carla Thomas, Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul was the last studio album Otis Redding would fully complete before his death, and it proves his desire for a broader musical statement didn't begin when he encountered "the love crowd" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.

1 - Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
2 - I'm Sick Y'all
3 - Tennessee Waltz
4 - Sweet Lorene
5 - Try a Little Tenderness
6 - Day Tripper
7 - My Lover's Prayer
8 - She Put the Hurt on Me
9 - Ton of Joy
10 - You're Still My Baby
11 - Hawg for You
12 - Love Have Mercy




KING & QUEEN (1967)
Otis Redding never recorded a lighter, more purely entertaining record than King & Queen, a collection of duets with Stax labelmate Carla Thomas. In all likelihood inspired by a series of popular duets recorded by Marvin Gaye -- indeed, "It Takes Two," Gaye's sublime collaboration with Kim Weston, is covered here -- the record serves no greater purpose than to allow Redding the chance to run through some of the era's biggest soul hits, including "Knock on Wood," "Tell It Like It Is" and "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,"and while clearly not a personal triumph on a par with either Otis Blue or The Dictionary of Soul, the set is still hugely succcessful on its own terms. Redding and Thomas enjoy an undeniable chemistry, and they play off each other wonderfully; while sparks fly furiously throughout King and Queen, the album's highlight is the classic "Tramp,"where their battle of the sexes reaches its fever pitch in supremely witty fashion.

1 - Knock on Wood
2 - Let Me Be Good to You
3 - Tramp
4 - Tell It Like It Is
5 - When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
6 - Lovey Dovey
7 - New Year's Resolution
8 - It Takes Two
9 - Are You Lonely for Me, Baby?
10 - Bring It on Home to Me
11 - Ooh Carla, Ooh Otis




THE DOCK OF THE BAY (1968)
It was never supposed to be like this: "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" was supposed to mark a beginning of a new phase in Otis Redding's career, not an ending. Producer/guitarist Steve Cropper had a difficult task to perform in pulling together this album, the first of several posthumous releases issued by Stax/Volt in the wake of Otis Redding's death. What could have been a cash-in effort or a grim memorial album instead became a vivid, exciting presentation of some key aspects of the talent that was lost when Redding died. Dock of the Bay is, indeed, a mixed bag of singles and B-sides going back to July of 1965, one hit duet with Carla Thomas, and a pair of previously unissued tracks from 1966 and 1967, respectively. There's little cohesion, stylistic or otherwise, in the songs, especially when the title track is taken into consideration -- nothing else here resembles it, for the obvious reason that Redding never had a chance to follow it up. Despite the mix-and-match nature of the album, however, this is an impossible record not to love. Cropper chose his tracks well, selecting some of the strongest and most unusual among the late singer's orphaned songs: "I Love You More Than Words Can Say" is one of Redding's most passionate performances; "Let Me Come on Home" presents an ebullient Otis Redding accompanied by some sharp playing; and "Don't Mess With Cupid" begins with a gorgeous guitar flourish and blooms into an intense, pounding, soaring showcase for singer and band alike. No one could complain about the album then, and it still holds more than three decades later. Reissued on CD by the Atco label through Rhino Records in excellent sound.

1 - (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
2 - I Love You More Than Words Can Say
3 - Let Me Come on Home
4 - Open the Door
5 - Don't Mess with Cupid
6 - The Glory of Love
7 - I'm Coming Home
8 - Tramp
9 - The Hucklebuck
10 - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
11 - Ole Man Trouble




THE IMMORTAL OTIS REDDING (1968)
A posthumous release of 11 sides recorded in 1967, showing Otis Redding turning his ability toward the most sophisticated soul music of his career -- even the songs with models in earlier works, such as "The Happy Song (Dum-Dum-De-De-De-Dum-Dum)," show a level of articulation and care in the playing that runs circles around Redding's earlier recordings. "Think About It" could pass for the work of an earlier phase in the singer's career, but for the surprisingly elegant piano accompaniment and Redding's more softly nuanced singing. It's a testament to Redding's talent that he left behind enough unanthologized and unreleased tracks to generate four fine posthumous studio albums, including this one. The good tracks are bookended by a pair of masterpieces, "I've Got Dreams to Remember" and the soaring "Amen," of which the latter has been heavily anthologized and the former not heard often enough.

1 - I've Got Dreams to Remember
2 - You Made a Man Out of Me
3 - Nobody's Fault But Mine
4 - Hard to Handle
5 - Thousand Miles Away
6 - Happy Song (Dum-Dum)
7 - Think About It
8 - A Waste of Time
9 - Champagne and Wine
10 - A Fool for You
11 – Amen




LOVE MAN (1969)
While Otis Redding was already one of the biggest stars in soul music when he died in a tragic plane crash in 1967, as is some times the case his star rose considerably after his passing, and this 1969 release dusted off a set of unreleased tracks Redding had cut in 1967, one of which (the title cut) went on to become a sizable chart hit. Love Man doesn't hold together quite as well as Redding's best proper albums, such as Otis Blue and Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, but it also manages to avoid sounding like a collection of out-takes and leftovers; as an album it's significantly stronger than the average R&B release of similar vintage, due to Redding's indefatigable energy and conviction as a vocalist and the ever-indomitable groove of Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr., and the other members of the Stax Records studio crew. If Love Man is flawed, it's not a matter of execution so much as material; while Redding's originals are good, none are quite up to the standards of "Cigarettes and Coffee" or "My Lover's Prayer", and covers like "A Lover's Question" and "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" are not ideally suited to Redding's style. But even the flawed material helps prove just how strong edding's work was, even under less than ideal circumstances, and Love Man makes it clear he never gave less than %110 percent in the studio.

1 - I'm a Changed Man
2 - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
3 - That's a Good Idea
4 - I'll Let Nothing Separate Us
5 - Direct Me
6 - Love Man
7 - Groovin' Time
8 - Your Feeling Is Mine
9 - Got to Get Myself Together
10 - Free Me
11 - A Lover's Question
12 - Look at That Girl