10 reasons we love Otis Redding

Otis Redding would have celebrated his 75th birthday on Sept. 9, 2016. Here are some of the reasons why we love the Macon-raised artist.

1. His best-known song, “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” was the first posthumous No. 1 song in history. He finished recording it two days before he died tragically in a plane crash Dec. 10, 1967. He was 26.

2. He was a prolific songwriter, penning hits like “Respect,” sung by Aretha Franklin, and “Hard to Handle,” sung by The Black Crowes.

3. He won Macon radio DJ Hamp Swain’s weekly talent show, “Teenage Party,” 15 times in a row. He later was banned from performing, so others could have a chance at winning.

4. He was one of the first soul artists to perform for Western rock audiences in the ‘60s at high-profile clubs like Whiskey A Go Go and The Fillmore, filling the rooms and reaching new audiences.

5. His iconic performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in California in 1967 was a huge crossover moment. There he performed a cover of “Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones, which was a huge hit with the “love crowd” in attendance.

6. He got his first record deal after performing two songs at the Stax studio in Memphis, Tennessee, when Johnny Jenkins, who he was driving for at the time, ended his session early. His first single from this session, “These Arms of Mine,” would go on to sell over 800,000 copies.

7. “Otis,” the Grammy award-winning single off of Kanye West and Jay Z’s album “Watch The Throne,” contained a sample of “Try A Little Tenderness.”

8. He recorded a little known, but nonetheless classic, Coca-Cola jingle from 1964, “Things Go Better With a Coke.”

9. His songwriting favored short, simple lyrics, as expressed in this classic quote, “Basically, I like any music that remains simple, and I feel this is the formula that makes ‘soul music’ successful. When any music form becomes cluttered and/or complicated you lose the average listener’s ear. There is nothing more beautiful than a simple blues tune.”

10. He’s cited as a major influence for nearly every major artist of the ‘60s and ‘70s, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Doors, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Janis Joplin.

This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 4:39 PM with the headline "10 reasons we love Otis Redding."