OTIS REDDING Sings Soul (Special Edition)

Original released on LP Volt 412

(US 1965, September 15)

OTIS & CARLA: "King & Queen"

Original released on LP STAX  S 716

(US 1967, March 16)

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 successful on its own terms. Redding and Thomas enjoy an undeniable chemistry, and they play off each other wonderfully; while sparks fly furiously throughout "King & Queen", the album's highlight is the classic "Tramp," where their battle of the sexes reaches its fever pitch in supremely witty fashion. (Jason Ankeny in AllMusic)

OTIS REDDING: "The Soul Album"

Original released on LP Volt 413

(US 1966, April 1)

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. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

The Soul Ballads Of OTIS REDDING

Original released on LP Volt 441 (mono)

(US, March 1965)

OTIS REDDING Debut Album

Original released on LP ATCO SD 33-161

(US 1964, March 17)

This album works on so many different levels, that it's essential listening for at least three categories of buyer - fans of Otis Redding and Stax Records (natch), and more general soul listeners, and also anyone serious about their devotion to the work of the Rolling Stones and any other British invasion bands that covered American soul. "Pain In My Heart" was practically a road map to Mick Jagger and any number of other would-be white soul shouters in the UK, not just on the title track but also numbers like the hard rocking "Hey Hey Baby". For someone only 22 years old at the time of these sessions, and just two years past his first 45 rpm record, Redding exudes astonishing power, energy and boldness, though it's all packaged with greater restraint than his subsequent records did. This was the only LP that Redding recorded during the lifetime of his idol, Sam Cooke, and his version of "You Send Me" is the least stylized of any of his renditions of Cooke's songs - later on, after Cooke's death, he would throw more of himself into it. The very fact that he was covering Cooke's soul classic shows an essential difference between Redding's and Cooke's early LPs; as Redding was on a soul label, no one tried to make him into a pop singer as that'd done at RCA with Cooke - thus, he was running on all cylinders right out of the starting gate, though he wouldn't get really interesting or show his full depth until two albums later. But even covering Rufus Thomas's "The Dog", Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", Little Richard's "Lucille", or Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", he's already doing 70% of what we came to expect from Otis Redding in the years ahead - his writing, apart from "Security", "These Arms Of Mine" and "That's What My Heart Needs", was still somewhat less than memorable, but this is still a first-rate debut. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

OTIS REDDING: "Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul" (Special edition in mono and stereo, with bonus)

Original released on LP Volt 415 (mono)

(US 1966, October 15)

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. & the MG's and the Memphis Horns) prove themselves both thoroughly distinctive and remarkably adaptable, fitting into 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 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. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)

OTIS REDDING - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay (1968)

EP ATLANTIC 02 5 (PT, 1966)

OTIS REDDING: "FA FA FA FA FA"