Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul
Studio album by Otis Redding
Released	September 15, 1965
Recorded	July 9–10, 1965 (except April 1965 for the mono version of "I've Been Loving You Too Long")
Studio	Stax (Memphis)
Genre	Soul R&B blues rock Southern soul
Length	32:22
Label	Volt
Producer	Jim Stewart Steve Cropper
Otis Redding chronology
The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (1965) Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965) The Soul Album (1966)

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (often referred to simply asOtis Blue) is the third studio album by the Americansoul singer and songwriterOtis Redding. It was first released on September 15, 1965, as anLP record through theStax Records subsidiary label Volt.

Otis Blue is composed mainly ofcover versions of contemporaryR&B hits, exploring themes from theblues andlove ballads, among others. Three of the LP's eleven songs were written by Redding, and three others were written by fellow soul singerSam Cooke, who had died several months before the album was made. Except for one track,Otis Blue was recorded in less than 24 hours (22 studio hours in two sessions which spanned 28 hours from July 9 to 10, 1965), at the Stax recording studio inMemphis, Tennessee. As with Redding's previous records, he was backed by the Stax house bandBooker T. & the M.G.'s, a horn section featuring members ofthe Mar-Keys andthe Memphis Horns, and pianistIsaac Hayes, providing a rhythmicSouthern soulaccompaniment for the singer's exuberant and forceful performances.

Otis Blue was acrossover success for Redding and proved one of his best-selling LPs with more than 250,000 copies sold. It was his first to top the USR&B LPs chart and also reached number 6 on theUK Albums Chart, while three of its singles becametop 40 hits: the Redding original "I've Been Loving You Too Long",the Rolling Stones cover "Satisfaction", and "Respect" (later repopularized byAretha Franklin). Released at the beginning of thealbum era,Otis Blue is considered by critics to be Redding's first fully realized LP^[1] and the definitive soul album of its period. It ranks frequently and highly on professional listings of the best albums, includingRolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" (at number 78) andTime magazine's "All-Time 100 Greatest Albums" (at number 92). A two-disccollector's edition ofOtis Blue was released in 2008 byRhino Records.

Stax Records presidentJim Stewart had releasedOtis Redding's "These Arms of Mine" as asingle after hearing him sing it at an audition in 1962. When itcharted, he signed Redding to the label.^[2] The moderately successfulLP albumsPain in My Heart (1964) andThe Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (1965) followed, with both performing well on the newly establishedR&B LPs chart (published byBillboard), although not on itspop counterpart.^[3] Preparations for a third album followed soon after, which would also serve as Redding's second to be released through Volt Records, asubsidiary label of Stax.^[4][5]

Redding recorded the album with the Stax house band,Booker T. & the M.G.'s (keyboardist/bandleaderBooker T. Jones, guitaristSteve Cropper, bassistDonald "Duck" Dunn, drummerAl Jackson Jr.);Isaac Hayes on piano; and a horn section consisting of members of theMar-Keys and theMemphis Horns. Apart from one track, the album was recorded in under 24 hours in two sessions within a 28 hour period between 10 am on July 9 (a Saturday) and 2 pm on July 10, 1965, with a break from 8 pm Saturday to 2 am on Sunday to allow the house band to play local gigs.^[6][7][8][9]

As with Redding's previous album, engineerTom Dowd came to the studio to assist the recording, considering Redding to be a "genius" alongside the likes ofBobby Darin andRay Charles.^[10] "Ole Man Trouble", placed as the opening track on the LP, was finished in sessions earlier than the other songs and later released as aB-side of "Respect".^[3] The album's fifth track, "I've Been Loving You Too Long", had been previously recorded in April in mono withBooker T. Jones on piano. It was released as a single that month and became a number-two hit onBillboard's R&B chart; it was re-recorded in stereo for the album.^[3][11]

The majority of the tracks onOtis Blue are cover versions, including three songs originally by fellow soul singerSam Cooke, who had been shot dead in December 1964.^[12] According to Jason Mendelsohn ofPopMatters, the album is a "set of soul standards,blues androck covers,Motown hits, and original material".^[13] The album opens with the "mournfully harried" "Ole Man Trouble", described by fellowPopMatters writer Claudrena N. Harold as one of Redding's mostphantasmagoric tunes.^[14][15] The lyrics deal with a man, who is "unable to escape the brutal realities of the blues",^[14] and has been compared withPaul Robeson's "Ole Man River".^[16]

"Respect" was possibly inspired by a quote of drummerAl Jackson Jr., who allegedly said to Redding after a tour, "What are you griping about? You're on the road all the time. All you can look for is a little respect when you come home."^[17] An alternative story is told by Redding's friend and road manager, Earl "Speedo" Sims, who states that the song "came from a group I was singing with", and that even though Redding rewrote it, "a lot of the lyric was still there"; Sims adds: "He told me I would get a credit, but I never did".^[18] Sims also states that he sang the backing vocals in the chorus.^[3] Essentially aballad, "Respect" is an uptempo and energetic song, which took "a day to write, 20 minutes to arrange, and one take to record", according to Redding.^[16]Aretha Franklin covered this song in 1967 and with it topped theBillboard R&B and Pop charts.^[19] Redding shouted to a woman for more respect, while Franklin ironically countered the song and transformed it into a "feminist hymn".^[16]

The next song is an energetic version of Sam Cooke's ballad, "Change Gonna Come"; a protest against racial segregation and disrespect for black people.^[20] "Down in the Valley" is a funky cover ofSolomon Burke's original, with whom Redding toured before the recording.^[14][21] Nate Patrin ofPitchfork felt that the song "ratchets up both the gospel beatitude and the secular lust".^[15] The love song "I've Been Loving You Too Long" was co-written by Redding andthe Impressions' lead singerJerry Butler in a hotel near theAtlanta airport.^[3] Redding's rendition of Cooke's "Shake" is again funkier. The song is about the club dancing in the so-called discothèques, which debuted in the early 1960s.^[22] The song was described as "a hard-swinging, full-throated 2:40 of precision ferocity with a force that would flat-out explode during his live sets."^[15]

The last five songs are all covers by popular artists:the Temptations' "My Girl", written bySmokey Robinson andRonald White; Cooke's "Wonderful World";B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby";the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction", on which Redding sings "fashion" instead of "faction";^[3] andWilliam Bell's "You Don't Miss Your Water", which was characterized as "sorrowful country blues",^[14] and has "one of the most devastating pleading-man lead vocals in the entire Stax catalog."^[15] "Satisfaction" sounded so plausible that a journalist even accused the Stones of stealing the song from Redding, and that they performed it after Redding.^[23] Music writerRobert Christgau describes it as an "anarchic reading" of the Stones' original.^[24]

Otis Blue was released on September 15, 1965,^[25] with Volt issuing the album in the US^[26] andAtlantic Records releasing it in the UK.^[25] The album sold more than 250,000 copies, according to music journalistTony Fletcher, who notes its use of a photo of a white woman on the cover in comparison to the self-representative cover of Redding contemporaryWilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" (1965), which, conversely, "languished in the R&B racks".^[27] The woman in the image, astock photo, has never been definitively identified, but is believed to beGerman model Dagmar Dreger.^[28][29] AlthoughOtis Blue only reached number 75 on the Pop LPs chart in 1966,^[30] three of its singles charted on theBillboard Hot 100: "I've Been Loving You Too Long" charted for 11 weeks and peaked at number 21, "Respect" spent 11 weeks and reached number 35, and "Shake" spent six weeks and reached number 47.^[31] Both the stereo and mono versions ofOtis Blue charted in the United Kingdom; the former spent 21 weeks and reached number six in 1966, and the latter spent 54 weeks and reached number seven in 1967.^[32] Two different pressings of the song "My Girl" also charted in the UK; a 7-inch single peaked at number 11 and charted for 16 weeks in 1965, and a reissued single in 1968 reached number 36 and charted for nine weeks.^[32] "Satisfaction" peaked at number 33 and "Shake" peaked at number 28 in the UK.^[32]

Otis Blue's commercial performance helped Reddingcross over into the pop market.^[33] Summarizing its mainstream impact, Alan Lewis fromRecord Collector calledOtis Blue "the soul album that sealed [Redding's] world reputation as the soul singer. The one whose title, with hindsight, probably did most to establish the use of the word 'soul' to define the music previously known as R&B."^[34] It also served as evidence that "thealbum era was here", according to music journalistMat Snow, who cites it among a series of mid-1960s rock LPs – the Rolling Stones'Aftermath,the Beach Boys'Pet Sounds,Bob Dylan'sBlonde on Blonde,the Beatles'Revolver, andthe Who'sA Quick One – proving hit singles were "no longer pop's most important money spinners and artistic statements".^[35]PopMatters journalist Eric Klinger added that it was uniquely successful as a soul LP, noting that "outside of rock music, the album was a basically untapped medium. LPs were almost an afterthought, with a couple of recent hit singles and enoughfiller to justify the $2.98 cost."^[13] In 2022 it wascertified Gold by theBritish Phonographic Industry, indicating 100,000 equivalent-units in the UK.^[36]

Retrospective professional reviews

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Blender	[24]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[37]
MusicHound R&B	5/5[38]
Pitchfork	10/10[15]
PopMatters	9/10[14]
Q	[39]
Record Collector	[34]
Rolling Stone	[40]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[41]

Otis Blue has been regarded by music critics as Redding's best work.^[33]Uncut magazine'sNeil Spencer called it "the greatest album of his career [and] arguably the definitive album of the soul era",^[16] whileRolling 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."^[40] InThe New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Paul Evans named it Redding's "first masterwork",^[41] and fellowRolling Stone criticDavid Fricke called it "perfect".^[9] Writing forBlender, Christgau appraised it as "the first great album by one of soul's few reliable long-form artists",^[24] whileThe Mojo Collection regarded it as "the definitiveSouthern soul album"^[42] and Patrin deemed it the "greatest studio-recorded soul LP" from the 1960s.^[15]

In a retrospective review forPitchfork, Patrin went on to callOtis Blue "a hell of a record, the crowning achievement of a man who could sound pained and celebratory and tender and gritty and proud all at once, with a voice that everyone fromJohn Fogerty toSwamp Dogg toCee-lo owes a debt to".^[15] Bruce Eder fromAllMusic explained further that "Redding's powerful, remarkable singing throughout makesOtis Blue gritty, rich, and achingly alive, and an essential listening experience", showcasing "his talent unfettered, his direction clear, and his confidence emboldened".^[12] "Song for song, it's difficult to imagine a better soul record", wroteStephen Deusner in theMemphis Flyer, crediting the singer's "effortlessly expressive vocals" and the "measuredaccompaniment" of the Stax house band.^[6] Similarly, Spencer praised "Cropper's stinging guitar and the atonal Memphis horns", saying it is "as much their album as Redding's",^[16] whileQ noted how the performers' individual musical elements coalesce with "a beautiful precision which borders on a kind ofSouthern soul sorcery ... arguably the hottest and strongest half-hour in soul".^[39] Angus Taylor ofBBC Music foundOtis Blue to be "at the crossroads of pop, rock, gospel, blues and soul", with a series of "short, punchy" songs "flawlessly ordered to ebb and flow between stirring balladry and foot stomping exuberance", making it Redding's "definitive statement".^[43] Harold, inPopMatters, also praised the diverse sound, which, according to her, is a mixture of "Motown pop, the blues, British rock, and Southern Soul", although she citedComplete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul (1966) as Redding's best album.^[14]

Otis Blue has featured on many professional lists of the best albums. According to Lewis, it is "predictably named as a Top 100 album, thetoken soul set in lists compiled by trendies who surely never bought it at the time."^[34] In 1993,NME ranked it 35th on the magazine's "Greatest Albums of All Time" issue^[44] and 405th ona similar list in 2013.^[45] The album was also ranked at number 74 onRolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" (2003), number 78 in a 2012 revised edition of the list,^[46] and number 178 in a 2020 revised edition.^[47]Time placed it at number 92 on the magazine's "All-Time 100 Greatest Albums". It has also appeared inQ magazine's "Best Soul Albums of All Time" and Robert Dimery's1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[48]

An expanded double-disccollector's edition ofOtis Blue was released in 2008 byRhino Records. It includes both the stereo and mono versions of the original album alongside bonus tracks inB-sides, live recordings, and previously unreleased alternate mixes.^[14][15] Christgau graded the edition with four out of five stars, saying it "comes with many useless alternate takes, but also with live tracks that preserve for history Redding's country-goes-uptown style of fun".^[24]

Musicians

• Otis Redding – vocals
• Booker T. Jones,Isaac Hayes – keyboards, piano
• Steve Cropper – guitar
• Donald Dunn – bass guitar
• Al Jackson Jr. – drums
• Wayne Jackson,Gene "Bowlegs" Miller – trumpet
• Andrew Love – tenor saxophone
• Floyd Newman – baritone saxophone
• William Bell – backing vocals (track 2)
• Earl Sims – backing vocals (track 2)

Additional personnel

• Tom Dowd –engineer
• Jim Stewart – supervision
• Yves Beauvais – reissue producer
• Bill Inglot, Dan Hersch –remastering
• Pete Sahula – cover photo
• Haig Adishian – cover design
• Bob Rolontz –liner notes

• List of number-one R&B albums of 1965 (U.S.)

• Bowman, Rob (1997).Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records. New York, NY: Schirmer Trade.ISBN 978-0-8256-7284-2.OCLC 36824884.
• Freeman, Scott (2002).Otis!: The Otis Redding Story. St. Martin's Press.ISBN 978-0-312-30297-9.OCLC 47443887.
• Gulla, Bob (2007).Icons of R&B and Soul: An Encyclopedia of the Artists Who Revolutionized Rhythm, Volume 1. Greenwood Press.ISBN 978-0-313-34044-4.OCLC 220310006.
• Guralnick, Peter (1999).Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom. Back Bay Books.ISBN 978-0-316-33273-6.OCLC 41950519.
• Otis Blue album liner notes by Bob Rolontz. Atlantic Recording Corp.
• Black, Johnny (2008).Classic Tracks Back to Back: Singles and Albums. Thunder Bay Press.ISBN 978-1-59223-872-9.
• Wyman, Bill; Coleman, Ray (November 20, 1990).Stone alone: the story of a rock 'n' roll band. Viking.ISBN 978-0-670-82894-4.

• Harper, Simon (September 18, 2015)."Talkin' About Heart And Soul: Otis Redding".Clash. RetrievedJune 9, 2021.

• Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (Adobe Flash) atRadio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul atDiscogs (list of releases)

• 1966 albums
• Albums produced by Jim Stewart (record producer)
• Atco Records albums
• Otis Redding albums
• Volt Records albums

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