YEAR
1989
INDUCTED BY
Little Richard
CATEGORY
Performers
Some singers had his power. Some had a bigger range. No one had Otis Redding’s emotion.
Otis Redding was a titan of soul. His live performances crackled with energy, electrifying audiences with the pure power of his expression.
Otis Redding
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Michael Hill
Otis Redding was, quite literally, sittin’ on the dock of the bay when he began to compose the tune that would become his most enduring hit after his sudden and untimely death in December of 1967.
Despite the song’s forlorn tale, Redding was, at the time, sitting on top of the world.
Redding had gone where few soul men of his day had dared to tread, taking his Memphis revue to the Monterey Pop Festival, where the nascent Woodstock generation gathered to listen to its new heroes – bands like the Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin and a young black guitarist named Jimi Hendrix.
