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Remembering R&B legend Otis Redding (born Otis Ray Redding, Jr. in Macon, GA) - September 9, 1941 - December 10, 1967.

Also remembering Ronnie Caldwell, Carl Cunningham, Jimmy King, and Phalon Jones of The Bar-Kays.

On this day in music history: December 10, 1966 - “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it is the third number one single for the Southern California based band. The song will have its origins in a conversation that Brian Wilson has with his mother during his childhood; she will tell him that dogs bark at people depending on the "vibrations" they sensed from them. Wilson tells this to his bandmate Mike Love and Love will come up with the title "Good Vibrations." Initially, Wilson will collaborate with lyricist Tony Asher on the song. Not entirely pleased with the lyrics, Love will completely re-write them. "Vibrations" will be recorded in 17 sessions over a period of six months in four different studios. The song will incorporate a number of instruments not typical for a pop song including cellos and a electro-therimin.  At an approximated cost of over $50,000, it is the most expensive single record ever produced (at the time), with the final version being edited together from various sections recorded over the lengthy sessions. The song’s innovative production and structure will make it an immediate smash on both sides of the Atlantic, stoking demand for the band’s next album Smile, which is currently in the works. The album itself will not surface in its intended form until nearly 45 years later in 2011.
 

Otis Redding has inarguably one of the most evocative voices in all our country's history, and like so many with such enormous talent, he died too young.


I think I first heard Otis in high school when I became obsessed with the Monterey Pop Festival, Otis' first big splash onto the pop scene. I was overwhelmed by his voice and energy during his famous performance there, including and especially a song he cowrote called "I've Been Loving You Too Long." In fact, one of my very first purchases at Amoeba quite a few years ago, and long before I ever worked here was the Reprise release of Redding's Monterey Pop set with Hendrix' on the flip side. I had never been able to find it anywhere else.


Otis came from Georgia, and he wrote and recorded for Stax/Volt, the famous Southern label. Not many people in his day were writing their own songs. Otis would write many with the legendary Steve Cropper, including "(Sittin On) The Dock of the Bay." Additionally, the many songs that he chose to cover were infused with a sprit and fortitude that made them all his own. Otis' career gained momentum throughout the 60s due to his incessant touring and massive talent for entertaining and moving crowds. He released a string of essential albums, including Pain in My Heart, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, Otis Blue, The Soul Album, Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul and King & Queen.

 

St. Louis Union were a Manchester six piece fronted by impeccably-coifed singer, Tony Cassidy. Shortly after forming they won a Melody Maker beat contest in 1965 which scored them a deal with Decca. They were billed as "THE Group on the Northern Soul Scene." Their sound was centered around Alex Kirby's tenor saxophone and Keith Millar's electric guitar backed by some serious organ by Dave Tomlinson, John Nichols on bass and Dave Webb on the skins.

Their live set was built around "Turn On Your Lovelight," "Woke Up This Morning," "Every Day I Have the Blues" and "Get On the Right Track Baby."

Their name seems to be a reference to the St. Louis Union Station, a train station famous, like many things in St. Louis, as having been the biggest and busiest thing in its field way back when. Its archways are designed so that one can whisper into them and someone else can hear you clearly on the other end, a design feature with no apparent practical applications, save simple amusements in a simpler time. It was largely built of limestone taken from Indiana, probably just to remind the Hoosiers who's boss, as the state of Missouri is entirely made of limestone and they're the nation's leader in lime production.


In the 1970s, the station was bought by Amtrak. They ended operations soon afterward and relocated their operations to a building the unhealthily train-obsessed refer to as Amshack. Now it's a mall where tourists watch the guys at the Fudge Factory put on a show and the Footlocker has a basketball hoop with the backboard autographed by the D.O.C.