Top 102 Albums. No 66.
Otis Blue - Otis Redding
Famously recorded in 24 hours this is possibly the fastest recorded classic album apart from live concerts. No surprise that Redding's live recordings are amoung the very best. This is pretty much the dream team, the MG's with Isaac Hayes replacing Booker T, the Mar-Keys, The Memphis Horns and engineering genius Tom Dowd helping out on the desk.
The songs are standards, including one which Redding (although there is some controversy) wrote during a break - Respect. He also wrote album opener Ol' Man Trouble and I've Been Loving You Too Long. As they say, all killer, no filler.
I'd save this for my Top Ten if I was being organisational about this list but I really want to listen to it this morning so here it is. Redding's voice captures yearning like few others, and his choice of songs is pretty immaculate. Three of the songs are from Sam Cooke, who had been tragically murdered the previous year. The loss seems to prefigure Redding's own tragically early death.
This is one of those albums where my favourite track is almost always the one I'm listening to. There's no temptation to skip.
This was always atop my (now long lost) vinyl stack.
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