Otis Redding – The Complete Studio Albums Collection (2015) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Otis Redding had a brief, but towering career that would shape all of Soul for decades thereafter. Now you can have Redding’s entire discography, offered for the first time here in stunning Super HiRez files! All six of Otis’s living works, and his four terrific posthumous studio albums are contained here.

Otis Redding – Pain In My Heart (1964/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:49 minutes | 400 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

This album works on so many different levels, that it’s essential listening for at least three categories of buyer – fans of Otis Redding and Stax Records (natch), and more general soul listeners, and also anyone serious about their devotion to the work of the Rolling Stones and any other British invasion bands that covered American soul. Pain In My Heart was practically a road map to Mick Jagger and any number of other would-be white soul shouters in the UK, not just on the title track but also numbers like the hard rocking “Hey Hey Baby”. For someone only 22 years old at the time of these sessions, and just two years past his first 45 rpm record, Redding exudes astonishing power, energy and boldness, though it’s all packaged with greater restraint than his subsequent records did. This was the only LP that Redding recorded during the lifetime of his idol, Sam Cooke, and his version of “You Send Me” is the least stylized of any of his renditions of Cooke’s songs – later on, after Cooke’s death, he would throw more of himself into it. The very fact that he was covering Cooke’s soul classic shows an essential difference between Redding’s and Cooke’s early LPs; as Redding was on a soul label, no one tried to make him into a pop singer as that’d done at RCA with Cooke – thus, he was running on all cylinders right out of the starting gate, though he wouldn’t get really interesting or show his full depth until two albums later. But even covering Rufus Thomas’s “The Dog”, Richard Berry’s “Louie Louie”, Little Richard’s “Lucille”, or Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”, he’s already doing 70% of what we came to expect from Otis Redding in the years ahead – his writing, apart from “Security”, “These Arms Of Mine” and “That’s What My Heart Needs”, was still somewhat less than memorable, but this is still a first-rate debut and a must-own album.

Tracklist:
01 – Pain In My Heart
02 – The Dog
03 – Stand By Me
04 – Hey Hey Baby
05 – You Send Me
06 – I Need Your Lovin’
07 – These Arms Of Mine
08 – Louie Louie
09 – Something Is Worrying Me
10 – Security
11 – That’s What My Heart Needs
12 – Lucille

Otis Redding – The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (1965/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:46 minutes | 386 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

The aptly named Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (1965) builds upon the strength and relative success of the vocalist’s solo debut long-player, Pain in My Heart (1964). The format – blending a few originals with well-chosen covers – remained consistent. However, increasingly evident is the strength of Redding’s interaction with Booker T. Jones (organ), Steve Cropper (guitar/piano), Donald “Duck” Dunn (bass), and Al Jackson, Jr. (drums), aka Booker T. & the MG’s. That relationship is sonically solidified with the singer’s seemingly innate ability to sculpt his leads around the powerful Memphis Horn section of Wayne Jackson (trumpet), Charles “Packy” Axton (tenor sax), and Floyd Newman (baritone sax). The results clearly speak for themselves with each of the album’s dozen selections as all the proof one needs. Redding’s testifyin’ on the opener, “That’s How Strong My Love Is,” was powerful enough to garner the attention of several British Invasion bands. While it was the Rolling Stones’ punkish cover that grabbed the most attention, to equal effect the Hollies and the Creation are among the others to have been similarly inspired. Adding to that cyclical experience are the obviously sincere updates of the Chuck Willis’ R&B heartbreaker “It’s Too Late,” “For Your Precious Love” – which had been a huge hit for the Jerry Butler-led incarnation of the Impressions – and Sam Cooke’s “Nothing Can Change This Love.” Of the latter, Redding’s take is arguably more powerful as the intimacy of his interpretation perfectly demonstrates the artist’s uncanny aptitude for emotional evocation. The Redding-penned titles likewise reflect his mentors, as “Chained and Bound” easily adopts the pleading conviction apparent in one facet of Cooke’s music. The samba groove of “I Want to Thank You” and the midtempo bounce of “A Woman, a Lover, a Friend” reflect the lighter, fun-loving side à la Cooke’s “Another Saturday Night” and “Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha.” Saving the best for last, the Redding/Cropper collaboration on the upbeat and bluesy “Mr. Pitiful” – a nickname given to Redding by a local Memphis DJ – became the platter’s signature side, not to mention a significant crossover hit, landing in the Top Ten of the R&B survey and just missing the Top 40 Pop Singles chart by a solitary position.

Tracklist:
01 – That’s How Strong My Love Is
02 – Chained And Bound
03 – A Woman, A Lover, A Friend
04 – Your One And Only Man
05 – Nothing Can Change This Love
06 – It’s Too Late
07 – For Your Precious Love
08 – I Want To Thank You
09 – Come To Me
10 – Home In Your Heart
11 – Keep Your Arms Around Me
12 – Mr. Pitiful

Otis Redding – Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:21 minutes | 766 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

Otis Redding’s third album, and his first fully realized album, presents his talent unfettered, his direction clear, and his confidence emboldened, with fully half the songs representing a reach that extended his musical grasp. More than a quarter of this album is given over to Redding’s versions of songs by Sam Cooke, his idol, who had died the previous December, and all three are worth owning and hearing. Two of them, “A Change Is Gonna Come” and “Shake,” are every bit as essential as any soul recordings ever made, and while they (and much of this album) have reappeared on several anthologies, it’s useful to hear the songs from those sessions juxtaposed with each other, and with “Wonderful World,” which is seldom compiled elsewhere. Also featured are Redding’s spellbinding renditions of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (a song epitomizing the fully formed Stax/Volt sound and which Mick Jagger and Keith Richards originally wrote in tribute to and imitation of Redding’s style), “My Girl,” and “You Don’t Miss Your Water.” “Respect” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” two originals that were to loom large in his career, are here as well; the former became vastly popular in the hands of Aretha Franklin and the latter was an instant soul classic. Among the seldom-cited jewels here is a rendition of B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby” that has the singer sharing the spotlight with Steve Cropper, his playing alternately elegant and fiery, with Wayne Jackson and Gene “Bowlegs” Miller’s trumpets and Andrew Love’s and Floyd Newman’s saxes providing the backing. Redding’s powerful, remarkable singing throughout makes Otis Blue gritty, rich, and achingly alive, and an essential listening experience.

Tracklist:
01 – Ole Man Trouble
02 – Respect
03 – Change Gonna Com
04 – Down In The Valley
05 – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)
06 – Shake
07 – My Girl
08 – Wonderful World
09 – Rock Me Baby
10 – Satisfaction
11 – You Don’t Miss Your Water

Otis Redding – The Soul Album (1966/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:20 minutes | 415 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

Otis Redding’s talent began to surge, across songs and their stylesand absorbing them, with the recording of The Soul Album. In contrast to The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, which was an advance over its predecessor but still a body of 12 songs of varying styles and textures, rising to peaks and never falling before an intense, soulful mid-range, The Soul Album shows him moving from strength to strength in a string of high-energy, sweaty soul performances, interspersing his own songs with work by Sam Cooke (“Chain Gang”), Roy Head (“Treat Her Right”), Eddie Floyd (“Everybody Makes a Mistake”), and Smokey Robinson (“It’s Growing”) and recasting them in his own style, so that they’re not “covers” so much as reinterpretations; indeed, “Chain Gang” is almost a rewrite of the original, though one suspects not one that Cooke would have disapproved of. He still had a little way to go as a songwriter – the jewel of this undervalued collection is “Cigarettes and Coffee, co-authored by Eddie Thomas and Jerry Butler – but as an interpreter he was now without peer, and his albums were now showing this remarkable, stunningly high level of consistency. Also significant on this album was the contribution of Steve Cropper, not only on guitar but as co-author of three songs.

Tracklist:
01 – Just One More Day
02 – It’s Growing
03 – Cigarettes and Coffee
04 – Chain Gang
05 – Good To Me
06 – Scratch My Back
07 – Treat Her Right
08 – Everybody Makes A Mistake
09 – Any Ole Way
10 – 634-5789
11 – Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down And Out)

Otis Redding – Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul (1966/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 35:49 minutes | 795 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

Recorded and released in 1966, Otis Redding’s fifth album, Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul found the rugged-voiced deep soul singer continuing to expand the boundaries of his style while staying true to his rough and passionate signature sound. Redding’s ambitious interpretations of “Tennessee Waltz” and especially “Try a Little Tenderness” found him approaching material well outside the traditional boundaries of R&B and allowing his emotionally charged musical personality to take them to new and unexpected places, and while his cover of “Day Tripper” wasn’t his first attempt to confront the British Invasion, his invigorating and idiosyncratic take on the Beatles’ cynical pop tune proved Redding’s view of the pop music universe was broader than anyone might have expected at the time. While Redding’s experiments with covers on this set were successful and satisfying, it was on his own material that he sounded most at home, and “My Lover’s Prayer” and “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)” are deep Southern soul at its finest, with Redding’s forceful but lovelorn voice delivering an Academy Award-worthy performance. And once again, the Stax house band (centered around Booker T. & the MG’s and the Memphis Horns) prove themselves both thoroughly distinctive and remarkably adaptable, fitting into the nooks and crannies of Redding’s voice with their supple but muscular performances. With the exception of his duet album with Carla Thomas, Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul was the last studio album Redding would fully complete before his death, and it proves his desire for a broader musical statement didn’t begin when he encountered “the love crowd” at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.

Tracklist:
01 – Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
02 – I’m Sick Y’All
03 – Tennessee Waltz
04 – Sweet Lorene
05 – Try A Little Tenderness
06 – Day Tripper
07 – My Lover’s Prayer
08 – She Put The Hurt On Me
09 – Ton Of Joy
10 – You’re Still My Baby
11 – Hawg For You
12 – Love Have Mercy

Otis Redding – King & Queen (1967/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:36 minutes | 739 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

Otis Redding never recorded a lighter, more purely entertaining record than King & Queen, a collection of duets with Stax labelmate Carla Thomas. In all likelihood inspired by a series of popular duets recorded by Marvin Gaye – indeed, “It Takes Two,” Gaye’s sublime collaboration with Kim Weston, is covered here – the record serves no greater purpose than to allow Redding the chance to run through some of the era’s biggest soul hits, including “Knock on Wood,” “Tell It Like It Is,”and “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,” and while clearly not a personal triumph on a par with either Otis Blue or The Dictionary of Soul, the set is still hugely successful on its own terms. Redding and Thomas enjoy an undeniable chemistry, and they play off each other wonderfully; while sparks fly furiously throughout King & Queen, the album’s highlight is the classic “Tramp,” where their battle of the sexes reaches its fever pitch in supremely witty fashion.

Tracklist:
01 – Knock On Wood
02 – Let Me Be Good To You
03 – Tramp
04 – Tell It Like It Is
05 – When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
06 – Lovey Dovey
07 – New Year’s Resolution
08 – It Takes Two
09 – Are You Lonely For Me Baby
10 – Bring It On Home
11 – Ooh Carla, Ooh Otis

Otis Redding – The Dock Of The Bay (1968/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:33 minutes | 691 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

It was never supposed to be like this: “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” was supposed to mark the beginning of a new phase in Otis Redding’s career, not an ending. Producer/guitarist Steve Cropper had a difficult task to perform in pulling together this album, the first of several posthumous releases issued by Stax/Volt in the wake of Redding’s death. What could have been a cash-in effort or a grim memorial album instead became a vivid, exciting presentation of some key aspects of the talent that was lost when Redding died. Dock of the Bay is, indeed, a mixed bag of singles and B-sides going back to July of 1965, one hit duet with Carla Thomas, and two, previously unissued tracks from 1966 and 1967. There’s little cohesion, stylistic or otherwise, in the songs, especially when the title track is taken into consideration – nothing else here resembles it, for the obvious reason that Redding never had a chance to follow it up. Despite the mix-and-match nature of the album, however, this is an impossible record not to love. Cropper chose his tracks well, selecting some of the strongest and most unusual among the late singer’s orphaned songs: “I Love You More Than Words Can Say” is one of Redding’s most passionate performances; “Let Me Come on Home” presents an ebullient Redding accompanied by some sharp playing, and “Don’t Mess with Cupid” begins with a gorgeous guitar flourish and blooms into an intense, pounding, soaring showcase for singer and band alike. No one could complain about the album then, and it still holds more than four decades later.

Tracklist:
01 – (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay
02 – I Love You More Than Words Can Say
03 – Let Me Come On Home
04 – Open The Door
05 – Don’t Mess With Cupid
06 – The Glory Of Love
07 – I’m Coming Home To See About You
08 – Tramp
09 – The Huckle-Buck
10 – Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down And Out)
11 – Ole Man Trouble

Otis Redding – The Immortal Otis Redding (1968/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:33 minutes | 704 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

The Immortal Otis Redding is a posthumous studio album by American soul recording artist Otis Redding, released in June 1968 by Atco Records. It compiles 11 songs recorded by Redding in a three-week stretch of sessions that concluded days prior to his death in December 1967. “The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)” was the only song previously released, having been a single in April 1968. The Immortal Otis Redding featured four charting singles including “The Happy Song”, “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember”, “Amen”, and “Hard to Handle”. Writing for Creem magazine in 1977, Robert Christgau called The Immortal Otis Redding his favorite album by Redding and “probably among my five most-played LPs”, because it “showcases the unduplicated warmth, tenderness, and humor of his ballad singing”.

Tracklist:
01 – I’ve Got Dreams To Remember
02 – You Made A Man Out Of Me
03 – Nobody’s Fault But Mine
04 – Hard To Handle
05 – Thousand Miles Away
06 – The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)
07 – Think About It
08 – A Waste Of Time
09 – Champagne And Wine
10 – A Fool For You
11 – Amen

Otis Redding – Love Man (1969/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:36 minutes | 733 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

While Otis Redding was already one of the biggest stars in soul music when he died in a tragic plane crash in 1967, as is some times the case his star rose considerably after his passing, and this 1969 release dusted off a set of unreleased tracks Redding had cut in 1967, one of which (the title cut) went on to become a sizable chart hit. Love Man doesn’t hold together quite as well as Redding’s best proper albums, such as Otis Blue and Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, but it also manages to avoid sounding like a collection of out-takes and leftovers; as an album it’s significantly stronger than the average R&B release of similar vintage, due to Redding’s indefatigable energy and conviction as a vocalist and the ever-indomitable groove of Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr., and the other members of the Stax Records studio crew. If Love Man is flawed, it’s not a matter of execution so much as material; while Redding’s originals are good, none are quite up to the standards of “Cigarettes and Coffee” or “My Lover’s Prayer”, and covers like “A Lover’s Question” and “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” are not ideally suited to Redding’s style. But even the flawed material helps prove just how strong Redding’s work was, even under less than ideal circumstances, and Love Man makes it clear he never gave less than %110 percent in the studio.

Tracklist:
01 – I’m A Changed Man
02 – (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher
03 – That’s A Good Idea
04 – I’ll Let Nothing Seperate Us
05 – Direct Me
06 – Love Man
07 – Groovin’ Time
08 – Your Feeling Is Mine
09 – Got To Get Myself Together
10 – Free Me
11 – A Lover’s Question
12 – Look At That Girl

Otis Redding – Tell The Truth (1970/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:02 minutes | 692 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

When a major artist dies, labels can usually be counted on to release anything and everything the artist had in the can, regardless of quality. In the case of Otis Redding, most of the posthumous releases were of a very high quality. One example is Tell the Truth, which was recorded the year he died, 1967, and remained unreleased until 1970. Though it falls short of essential, Truth has a lot to excite the soul icon’s more devoted followers. Tracks like “I Got the Will,” “Snatch a Little Piece,” and “Demonstration” are pure Redding – frenzied, passionate, relentlessly gritty Memphis soul that makes no concessions to pop tastes or Northern soul. “Out of Sight” speaks volumes about him – while others would have been afraid to cover a song written and defined by James Brown, Redding confidently tackles it with splendid results. Redding’s last major hit, “Dock of the Bay,” indicated that had he lived, he would have explored softer, Northern R&B sounds. But on this album, it was Memphis all the way.

Tracklist:
01 – Demonstration
02 – Tell The Truth
03 – Out Of Sight
04 – Give Away None Of My Love
05 – Wholesale Love
06 – I Got The Will
07 – Johnny’s Heartbreak
08 – Snatch A Little Piece
09 – Slippin’ And Slidin’
10 – The Match Game
11 – A Little Time
12 – Swingin’ On A String

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