Tag Archives: Carla Thomas

Sittin’ on The Dock of Bay

Leave a comment

Dock of the Bay

(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay was released this week in 1968. Soul singer Otis Redding recorded the basic tracks at Stax Studios three days before his death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967 at Lake Monona, near Madison, Wisconsin. The song was completed by co-writer and guitarist Steve Cropper, and released posthumously in January, 1968.

dock-of-the-bay-volt

The tune came about in August, 1967 when Redding was sitting in a rented houseboat in Sausalito, California and started writing lyrics to the first verse of the song. While touring to back up his album “King & Queen” with Carla Thomas, he scribbled more lines for the song on napkins and hotel stationery. When Redding returned to Memphis, Steve Cropper helped finish the song in the studio with the Stax house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s. The distinctive whistling at the end fade was recorded after Redding’s death by Sam “Bluzman” Taylor, his bandleader. It is considered the most famous whistling in any song.

Initially, there were concerns the song had too much of a pop feel for Redding but “Dock of the Bay” went on to sell more than four million copies and brought Otis the greatest success of his career. The single went on to win two Grammy Awards: Best R & B Song and Best Male R & B Vocal Performance and became a classic song. We can only imagine how many more hits Redding would have had in the next phase of his career if had lived!

Advertisement

Happy Birthday, Isaac Hayes

Leave a comment
photo by zonia di fotographia
photo by zonia di fotographia, Flickr

One of the key figures at Stax on stage and off, Isaac Hayes, was born today, August 20, 1942 in Covington, TN. Raised by his grandparents, Hayes began singing in church at age five and eventually taught himself to play several instruments–piano, organ, and saxophone–before later moving to Memphis for club gigs. That versatitlity and a talent for songwriting and producing helped him become one of  the architects of the Memphis soul sound at Stax. After working in the house band for artists like Otis Redding, he began writing hits with his partner Dave Porter. The two became a creative powerhouse, crafting over 200 songs, many of them becoming classics for Sam & Dave (“Soul Man,”), Carla Thomas (“B-A-B-Y”), and Johnnie Taylor (“I Had a Dream”).

isaac-hayes-shaft-SX

Hayes launched a solo career in 1967 with “Presenting Isaac Hayes,” but it was his distinctive wah-wah guitar-fueled “Theme From Shaft” that made him a household name across America and all over the world. Can ya dig it?

The title track from the 1971 blaxploitation film “Shaft” soundtrack went on to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Not only was it a memorable hit but Isaac Hayes was the first African-American to win an Oscar in that category.

When his music career waned, Hayes shifted to acting and was a regular on “The Rockford Files,” and had roles in movies such as “Truck Turner,” “Hustle & Flow,” and “Escape From New York.” In 1997, Hayes became popular to a new generation of fans when he provided the voice of Jerome “Chef” McElroy, one of the characters on the cartoon TV series “South Park.” Chef was an immediate hit and even though he was a school cafeteria worker, he often broke into song like this raunchy track from Chef Aid:

In 2002, Isaac Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was in ill health on August 10, 2008, when he collapsed at his home in Memphis and died from a stroke ten days before his 66th birthday.

Stax Museum of American Soul Music
926 East McLemore Avenue
Memphis, TN 38106
Phone: (901) 942-7685
http://www.staxmuseum.com/