December 10 marks the anniversary of the death of Otis Redding in 1967. He
was 26. The plane he was traveling in crashed outside Madison, Wisconsin, in bad
weather. He died three days after recording the song “Sitting on the Dock of
the Bay.” The song was released in January 1968, and was his only number 1
single on the Billboard 100. It was actually the first posthumous number one
song in history. Interestingly, he intended to replace the whistling at the end
of the song with a new verse, but never did. I wonder what he had in mind. You
can hear it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzrXc68gNjQ
You can also hear his version of “Satisfaction,” the song by the Rolling
Stones at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmSDExVBR94
The story goes that Otis did not know some words to the song and made them
up. His version includes horns playing the main riff, which I understand was
originally intended by Keith Richards.
There have been 7 posthumous #1 hits, including songs by Janis Joplin, Jim
Croce, and John Lennon.
Other musicians who died in plane crashes in the rock and roll era include
Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens, all on the same plane in 1959;
and Jim Croce in 1973. The first event, of course, was known as the day the
music died, as immortalized in Don McLeans ballad.
No comments:
Post a Comment