Recordings: Epitaph for Otis

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Otis Redding was one of the better exponents of that exhilarating American blend of the blues, gospel and pop:soul music. In France he became recognized as a historic figure in rhythm and blues, and in Britain he was voted the top male singer of 1967. But at the time of his death at 26 in a plane crash last December, he had still to catch on big in his own country.

Now, in a burst of discovery, the U.S. record-buying public is making it up to Redding for a side he made only 21 weeks before his death, Dock of the Bay. Surprisingly, Dock of the Bay is restful and reflective, whereas previous songs, like Shake and Try a Little Tenderness, were exuberant, even ecstatic. But it is no less authentically soulful, and its ironic air of premonition is not lost on the kids, either:

Left my home in Georgia; headed for the Frisco Bay. I have nothin' to live for; look like nothin' gonna come my way. So I'm just gonna set on the dock of the bay; watch the tide roll away.

Released posthumously in January, Dock of the Bay has already sold 1,400,000 copies, and was No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart last week for the fourth straight week. "All this acclamation for Otis is new," says Atlantic Records Executive Vice President Jerry Wexler. "It's his epitaph, and it proves that a singer can do his own thing and still be commercially successful. Otis is tremendously responsible for the fact that so much of the young white audience now digs Soul the way the black does." In the vaults are 40 or so sides that are now being culled for more hits from the soul of Otis Redding.