(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay whistled by Otis Redding

[luisam]

Otis Redding started writing the lyrics to the song (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay in August 1967, while sitting on a rented houseboat in Sausalito, California. Initially ha called it just  Dock of the Bay. Took him a couple of months to get it finished while touring, scribbling lines of the song on napkins and hotel paper. In November 22 of that year, he completed the song with the help of Steve Cropper, who was a Stax producer and the guitarist for Booker T. & the M.G.'s.recording the song at the Stax studio in Memphis, with additional overdubs on December 8.

 

In a September 1990 interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Cropper explained the origins of the song:

 

"Otis was one of those the kind of guy who had 100 ideas. [...] He had been in San Francisco doing The Fillmore. And the story that I got he was renting boathouse or stayed at a boathouse or something and that's where he got the idea of the ships coming in the bay there. And that's about all he had: "I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again." I just took that... and I finished the lyrics. If you listen to the songs I collaborated with Otis, most of the lyrics are about him. [...] Otis didn't really write about himself but I did.... "Dock of the Bay" was exactly that: "I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay" was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform."

 

Redding's restrained yet emotive delivery is backed by Cropper's memorably succinct guitar playing. The song is somewhat different in style from most of Redding's other recordings. While discussing the song with his wife, Redding stated that he had wanted to "be a little different" with "The Dock of the Bay" and "change his style". There were concerns that "The Dock of the Bay" had too much of a pop feel for an Otis Redding record, and contracting the Stax gospel act the Staple Singers to record backing vocals was discussed but never carried out.

 

Redding had considered the song to be unfinished and planned to record what he considered a final version, but never got the chance. The song features a whistled tune heard before the song's fade. It was originally performed by Redding, who (according to Cropper) had "this little fadeout rap he was gonna do, an ad-lib; but he forgot what it was so he started whistling."

 

Redding continued to tour after the recording sessions and 3 days later, on December 10, his charter plane crashed into Lake Monona, outside Madison, Wisconsin. Redding and six others were killed.

 

After Redding's death, Cropper mixed "Dock of the Bay" at Stax Studios. He added the sound of seagulls and waves crashing to the background, as Redding had requested, recalling the sounds he heard when he was staying on the houseboat. The fade-out whistling  originally recorded by Redding was re-recorded by his bandleader, Sam "Bluzman" Taylor.

 

The song was released on Stax Records' Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous single to top the charts in the US. It reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.

 

In addition to the original Otis Redding version, several other versions have charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. King Curtis's version charted for five weeks starting in March 1968 and peaked at number 84 (during the same month, the original was number one). A year later, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66's version charted for five weeks starting in June 1969 and peaked at number 66. Sammy Hagar's version charted for five weeks starting in April 1979, peaking at number 65. The Reddings, who included two of Otis Redding's sons, released a version which charted for nine weeks starting in June 1982 and peaked at number 55. Michael Bolton's rendition charted for 17 weeks starting in January 1988 and peaked at number 11, making it the highest-charting cover version.

 

Anyway, the version which comes to mind when you hear the title "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay" is the original one by Otis Redding.