Into the landscape of old soul music, Otis Redding became famous through the medium of his catchy songs, as is the case of the song (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.
Otis Redding wrote the lyrics for this song by the side of the famous guitarist Steve Cropper.
He started to work at this song since 1967, when he was on a houseboat. That experience offered him inspiration and he wanted to remember that day forever, that’s how the song resulted. As a plus, the song contains sounds of waves and whistling.
The song was recorded twice and it was released after Otis died in a plane crush. Stax Records was the producer of this song, managing to bring into the musical charts the most famous post-mortem song since then.
The song is a soul ballade full of melancholy. Back in the days, the soul music was a method of sinking in distant memories.
The lyrics of this song present the calmness of a day on the dock. The entire masterpiece is written at the 1st person, is a confession. The author contemplates the entire world, the past and the future, from dock of the bay. The melody conveys a state of solitude and resignation.
The melodic line is a very pleasant one. Otis, as a famous soul artist, managed to release a track that contains a special musical rhythm. The unique character is represented by the whistling notes.
Also, the song was extremely well-received by the audience.
It had an enormous success and as a proof you can see the multiple cover versions of this track. Artist from all over the world took over Redding’s song and adapted as they wanted. Among them you can count Percy Sledge, Glen Campbell, Bob Dylan, Michael Bolton or Cher. Some of them even won nominalizations in musical charts like Billboard or Grammy.
The success came quickly after Redding’s tragically death. At the beginning, there were some voices who canceled the possibility of becoming a hit song.
But, little by little, the song succeeded to enter into auditor’s hearts and it became an internationally success. It ranked in charts like United States Billboard Hot 100, Hot Rhythm & Blues Singers or United Kingdom Singles Charts.
Take a look over the piano notes we made for you and sing this song in the memory of Otis Redding!
