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How Otis Redding Made ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’: The Song He Never Heard Finished
It is one of the strangest and saddest facts in popular music: the biggest hit of Otis Redding’s life was a song he never heard finished. He recorded it, he whistled its ending, he flew home to Georgia, and three days later he was gone. The song that remained, gentle, wistful, and unlike anything he…
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Otis Redding: The Heart Behind the Hits
Otis Redding sang as if his heart were right there on the stage with him, unguarded and unafraid. Fans heard that openness and felt they knew him, even if they had only heard him on a record player in a living room far from Macon or Memphis. Yet behind the powerful voice was a young…
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The Untold Story of Otis Redding: The Soul Man From Macon Who Sang With His Whole Heart
There are singers who perform a song, and there are singers who seem to live inside it, as if every word cost them something real. Otis Redding was the second kind. When he sang, you did not hear a polished performance; you heard a man giving everything he had, in a voice that could be…