On July 9th 1965 Otis Redding started recording sessions at Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee for what would become his third studio album, Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul.
The album, commonly known as Otis Blue, mainly consists of cover versions of other R&B and soul artists’ hits and, bar one track, was recorded in a 24-hour period.
According to the drummer, Al Jackson, Redding wrote Respect after a conversation they had during a break in the recording session, in which he told Redding, “You’re on the road all the time. All you can look for is a little respect when you come home.”
Three of the LP’s eleven songs were written by Otis and three others were written by fellow soul singer Sam Cooke, who had died several months before the album was made.
As with Redding’s previous records he was backed by the Stax house band Booker T & the M.G.’s, a horn section featuring members of The Mar-Keys and The Memphis Horns and pianist Isaac Hayes.
Otis Blue has been regarded by music critics as Redding’s best work. Rolling Stone described it as “Redding’s true dictionary of soul, a stunning journey through the past and future vocabulary of R&B … documenting a masterful artist rising to … the immense challenge of his times.”
We are proud to feature the work of this soul legend, who tragically died in a plane crash on 10th December 1967 aged just 26, on Exclusive Radio.
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