OTIS BLUE/OTIS REDDING SINGS SOUL by Otis Redding (1965)
Otis Redding only released five studio albums prior to his death in 1967. But in his short career, he left an indelible mark. Otis Blue was one of the seminal R&B crossover smashes that made black urban contemporary music one of the dominant threads of the American sound in the 1960s.
On his first two albums, he established a pattern of mixing covers with his own original songs, and he pushed that even further on Otis Blue. It resulted in his first two Top 40 hits on Billboard’s US chart – recordings of his originals “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” and “Respect,” (soon to be made even more famous by Aretha Franklin’s cover.)
He also included three Sam Cooke songs and tunes from Smokey Robinson and B.B. King. Most importantly for his crossover appeal, he did a fabulous bluesy take on the Stones' “Satisfaction,” backed up by Donald “Duck” Dunn’s bass and some great horn blasts from Bowlegs Miller and members of the Mar-Keys and Memphis Horns on sax.
The album would hit number one on the R&B charts and crack the top 100 on Billboard’s main charts. The albums that came after Otis Blue would build on that success.