Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (typically referred to easily as Otis Blue) is the third studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Otis Redding. It was first launched on September 15, 1965, as an LP file by way of the Stax Information subsidiary label Volt.
Otis Blue consists primarily of canopy variations of latest R&B hits, overlaying themes from the blues and love ballads, amongst others. Three of the LP’s eleven songs had been written by Redding, and three others had been written by fellow soul singer Sam Cooke, who had died a number of months earlier than the album was made. Aside from one observe, Otis Blue was recorded within the span of 24 hours from July 9 to 10, 1965, on the Stax recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee. As with Redding’s earlier information, he was backed by the Stax home band Booker T. & the M.G.’s, a horn part that includes members of The Mar-Keys and The Memphis Horns, and pianist Isaac Hayes, offering a rhythmic Southern soul accompaniment for the singer’s exuberant and forceful performances.
Otis Blue was a crossover success for Redding and proved one in every of his best-selling LPs with greater than 250,000 copies bought. It was his first to high the US R&B LPs chart and in addition reached quantity 6 on the UK Albums Chart, whereas three of its singles grew to become high 40 hits: the Redding unique “I’ve Been Loving You Too Lengthy”, The Rolling Stones cowl “Satisfaction”, and “Respect” (later repopularized by Aretha Franklin). Launched in the beginning of the album period, Otis Blue is taken into account by critics to be Redding’s first totally realized LP[1] and the definitive soul album of its interval. It ranks incessantly and extremely on skilled listings of the most effective albums, together with Rolling Stone journal’s “500 Best Albums of All Time” (at quantity 78) and Time journal’s “All-Time 100 Best Albums” (at quantity 92). A two-disc collector’s version of Otis Blue was launched in 2008 by Rhino Information.
Recording
Recording gear from the Stax studio preserved on the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis; house-band participant Steve Cropper proven on an adjoining display screen, 2013
Redding recorded the album with the Stax home band Booker T. & the M.G.’s (keyboardist/bandleader Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, drummer Al Jackson Jr.), Isaac Hayes on piano, and a horn part consisting of members of the Mar-Keys and the Memphis Horns. The album was largely recorded in a 24-hour session between 10 am on July 9 (a Saturday) and a pair of pm on July 10, 1965, with a break from 8 pm Saturday to 2 am on Sunday to permit the home band to play native gigs.[6][7][8][9]
As with Redding’s earlier album, engineer Tom Dowd got here to the studio to help the recording, contemplating Redding to be a “genius” alongside the likes of Bobby Darin and Ray Charles.[10] “Ole Man Bother”, positioned because the opening observe on the LP, was completed in periods sooner than the opposite songs and later launched as a B-side of “Respect”.[3] The fifth observe “I’ve Been Loving You Too Lengthy” had been beforehand recorded in mono with Booker T. Jones on piano and launched as a single in April 1965, turning into a number-two hit on Billboard‘s R&B chart; it was re-recorded in stereo for the album.[3]
Music and lyrics
The Stax crew throughout Otis Blue‘s recording, from left to proper: Cropper, Donald “Duck” Dunn, engineer Tom Dowd, David Porter, Julius Inexperienced, Andrew Love, Floyd Newman, Wayne Jackson, and Isaac Hayes.
The vast majority of the tracks on Otis Blue are cowl variations, together with three songs initially by fellow soul singer Sam Cooke, who had been shot useless in December 1964.[11] In accordance with Jason Mendelsohn of PopMatters, the album is a “set of soul requirements, blues and rock covers, Motown hits, and unique materials”.[12] The album opens with the “mournfully harried” “Ole Man Bother”, described by fellow PopMatters author Claudrena N. Harold as one in every of Redding’s most phantasmagoric tunes.[13][14] The lyrics take care of a person, who’s “unable to flee the brutal realities of the blues”,[13] and has been in contrast with Paul Robeson’s “Ole Man River”.[15]
“Respect” was presumably impressed by a quote of drummer Al Jackson Jr., who allegedly stated to Redding after a tour, “What are you griping about? You are on the street on a regular basis. All you’ll be able to search for is a little bit respect once you come dwelling.”[16] An alternate story is advised by Redding’s buddy and street supervisor, Earl “Speedo” Sims, who states that the music “got here from a bunch I used to be singing with”, and that despite the fact that Redding rewrote it, “lots of the lyric was nonetheless there”; Sims provides: “He advised me I’d get a credit score, however I by no means did”.[17] Sims additionally states that he sang the backing vocals within the refrain.[3] Primarily a ballad, “Respect” is an uptempo and energetic music, which took “a day to jot down, 20 minutes to rearrange, and one take to file”, based on Redding.[15] Aretha Franklin coated this music in 1967 and with it topped the Billboard R&B and Pop charts.[18] Redding shouted to a girl for extra respect, whereas Franklin sarcastically countered the music and reworked it right into a “feminist hymn”.[15]
Redding (1966) performs in a forceful and energetic model all through the album.
The following music is an brisk model of Sam Cooke’s ballad, “Change Gonna Come”; a protest in opposition to racial segregation and disrespect for black individuals.[19] “Down within the Valley” is a cool cowl of Solomon Burke’s unique, with whom Redding toured earlier than the recording.[13][20] Nate Patrin of Pitchfork felt that the music “ratchets up each the gospel beatitude and the secular lust”.[14] The love music “I’ve Been Loving You Too Lengthy” was co-written by Redding and The Impressions’ lead singer Jerry Butler in a resort close to the Atlanta airport.[3] Redding’s rendition of Cooke’s “Shake” is once more funkier. The music is in regards to the membership dancing within the so-called discothèques, which debuted within the early Sixties.[21] The music was described as “a hard-swinging, full-throated 2:40 of precision ferocity with a pressure that will flat-out explode throughout his reside units.”[14]
The final 5 songs are all covers by fashionable artists: The Temptations’ “My Lady”, written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White; Cooke’s “Fantastic World”; B.B. King’s “Rock Me Child”; The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”, on which Redding sings “trend” as an alternative of “faction”;[3] and William Bell’s “You Do not Miss Your Water”, which was characterised as “sorrowful nation blues”,[13] and has “one of the devastating pleading-man lead vocals in all the Stax catalog.”[14] “Satisfaction” sounded so believable {that a} journalist even accused the Stones of stealing the music from Redding, and that they carried out it after Redding.[22] Music author Robert Christgau describes it as an “anarchic studying” of the Stones’ unique.[23]
Essential reception and legacy
| Evaluate scores | |
|---|---|
| Supply | Score |
| AllMusic |  [11] |
| Blender |  [23] |
| Encyclopedia of In style Music | [34] |
| MusicHound R&B | 5/5[35] |
| Pitchfork | 10/10[14] |
| PopMatters | 9/10[13] |
| Q | [36] |
| Document Collector | [31] |
| Rolling Stone | [37] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Information | [38] |
Otis Blue has been regarded by music critics as Redding’s greatest work.[30] Uncut journal’s Neil Spencer referred to as it “the best album of his profession [and] arguably the definitive album of the soul period”,[15] whereas Rolling Stone described it as “Redding’s true dictionary of soul, a surprising journey by way of the previous and future vocabulary of R&B … documenting a masterful artist rising to … the immense problem of his instances.”[37] In The New Rolling Stone Album Information (2004), Paul Evans named it Redding’s “first masterwork”,[38] and fellow Rolling Stone critic David Fricke referred to as it “good”.[9] Writing for Blender, Christgau appraised it as “the primary nice album by one in every of soul’s few dependable long-form artists”,[23] whereas The Mojo Assortment regarded it as “the definitive Southern soul album”[39] and Patrin deemed it the “biggest studio-recorded soul LP” from the Sixties.[14]
In a retrospective evaluate for Pitchfork, Patrin went on to name Otis Blue “a hell of a file, the crowning achievement of a person who may sound pained and celebratory and tender and gritty and proud abruptly, with a voice that everybody from John Fogerty to Swamp Dogg to Cee-lo owes a debt to”.[14] Bruce Eder from AllMusic defined additional that “Redding’s highly effective, outstanding singing all through makes Otis Blue gritty, wealthy, and achingly alive, and a necessary listening expertise”, showcasing “his expertise unfettered, his course clear, and his confidence emboldened”.[11] “Music for music, it is troublesome to think about a greater soul file”, wrote Stephen Deusner within the Memphis Flyer, crediting the singer’s “effortlessly expressive vocals” and the “measured accompaniment” of the Stax home band.[6] Equally, Spencer praised “Cropper’s stinging guitar and the atonal Memphis horns”, saying it’s “as a lot their album as Redding’s”,[15] whereas Q famous how the performers’ particular person musical components coalesce with “an attractive precision which borders on a form of Southern soul sorcery … arguably the most popular and strongest half-hour in soul”.[36] Angus Taylor of BBC Music discovered Otis Blue to be “on the crossroads of pop, rock, gospel, blues and soul”, with a collection of “brief, punchy” songs “flawlessly ordered to ebb and movement between stirring balladry and foot stomping exuberance”, making it Redding’s “definitive assertion”.[40] Harold, in PopMatters, additionally praised the varied sound, which, based on her, is a mix of “Motown pop, the blues, British rock, and Southern Soul”, though she cited Full & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul (1966) as Redding’s greatest album.[13]
Otis Blue has featured on {many professional} lists of the most effective albums. In accordance with Lewis, it’s “predictably named as a High 100 album, the token soul set in lists compiled by trendies who certainly by no means purchased it on the time.”[31] In 1993, NME ranked it thirty fifth on the journal’s “Best Albums of All Time” difficulty[41] and 405th on an analogous listing in 2013.[42][43] The album was additionally ranked at quantity 74 on Rolling Stone‘s “500 Best Albums of All Time” (2003), quantity 78 in a 2012 revised version of the listing,[44] and quantity 178 in a 2020 revised version.[45] Time positioned it at quantity 92 on the journal’s “All-Time 100 Best Albums”. It has additionally appeared in Q journal’s “Greatest Soul Albums of All Time” and Robert Dimery’s 1001 Albums You Should Hear Earlier than You Die.[46] Based mostly on such rankings, the mixture web site Acclaimed Music lists Otis Blue because the 74th most acclaimed album in historical past, in addition to the twentieth most from the Sixties and the fourth most amongst 1965 releases.[47]
