1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 56. Otis Redding – Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965)

Listening to this, I was thinking that there’s a paper-thin difference between Redding and Sam Cooke, and then my typical cursory research revealed to me that not only had Cooke contributed to the writing of many of the tracks on this album, but had sadly died shortly before its release. I hadn’t realised that he’d died so young.  

Another family tree connection is that this album uses the Stax house band, Booker T and the MGs (no Hammond organ though, sadly). And let’s be clear here – this was recorded in Memphis, so the genre is Southern Soul, not the (Detroit) Motown sound. And Cooke toured with Solomon Burke. I see what you’re doing here, Dimery, building up this comprehensive picture of linked artists (Dimery, or his “soul” contributor(s)). 

So, musically we get a load of classics – My Girl, Wonderful World (that’s the “Don’t know much about history” one, not to be confused with Louis Armstrong’s *What A* Wonderful World). Some sneaky Civil Rights activism hidden in plain sight with Change Gonna Come, and some 360 degree feedback as Cooke covers the Jaggers/Richards Satisfaction, a nice response to the Stones covering R&B classics. The Redding original Ole Man Trouble is a glorious plea to trouble to stay away, the personification of trouble much like Trouble and Me by Buck Owens. 

In some ways I think the fact that the hits get so much airplay made this album sound a little uninteresting in places - “Oh, how exciting. My Girl. Played to death since that Macauley Culkin film”, but outside of the same old tracks it’s a good piece of soul history. 

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