161) The Dock of the Bay

 Listen Now
Download the cd!
Buy the album at Rhino.com

On December 6th, 1967, Redding recorded "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay," an experiment in "soul folk" influenced by the enthusiastic reception he'd gotten from the rock audience at the Monterey Pop Festival the previous June. Four days later, he was dead, when a plane he'd chartered went down in a Wisconsin lake. "Dock of the Bay" went on to become his biggest hit, a pop and R&B Number One. Guitarist Steve Cropper assembled this collection using unreleased sessions. So strong was Redding's output that both Dock of the Bay and the latter posthumous set The Immortal Otis Redding rank as essential soul albums.

Total album sales: 500,000

Peak chart position: 4

Next: Radiohead

Back to RS 500 Albums!
Back to RS 500 Songs!