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About

Genius Annotation

By the time Otis Redding wrote “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay”, he was ambitious to finally record a number one hit. Even though he finally succeeded his goal with this song, hitting number one on the Billboard charts in March 1968, Redding never got to know how successful this song became.

“(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay” was recorded shortly before he, along with four members of his backing band, his assistant and the pilot were killed in a plane crash on the 10th of December, 1967. Only one person survived the crash. While Redding’s body wasn’t even found yet, co-writer Steve Cropper was forced to go back into the studio by their record label to release something. A small month after Redding’s death, “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay” got released, and quickly climbed the charts. It became the first posthumous number one hit in the United States' music chart history. The song even won awards, including two Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

“(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay” is sampled in many popular songs, including tracks by De La Soul, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and Blackalicious.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Otis Redding say about "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay"?
Genius Answer

In an interview with Marc Myers for the book Anatomy of a Song, Steve Cropper recalled mixing the song after Otis Redding had died:

When I finished the mix… I took the master tape to the Memphis airport and handed the box to an attendant flying up to New York. She was met in New York by an Atlantic rep and the label made a test pressing for Jerry [Wexler]. But Jerry had a problem with it. He wanted Otis' vocal to be louder and wanted me to remix the tape. I felt it was perfect and didn’t want to touch it.
Then I had an idea. The tape Jerry had was a stereo mix with the bass and guitar coming out of the left speaker and the drums and vocal track on the right. By turning the stereo mix into a mono mix, having the same audio information coming out of both speakers, the vocal would come up two decibels. So that’s what I did, but I never though I’d fool Jerry. Well, I did. He loved what I sent, and that’s what you hear on the single.

Were changes made to this song after Redding's death?
Genius Answer

In an interview with NPR, co-writer and guitarist Steve Cropper revealed that some small things got added after Redding’s death:

A lot of people may not know this, but Otis never heard the waves, he never heard the sea gulls, and he didn’t hear the guitar fills that I did. And I actually went over to a local jingle company there, Pepper-Tanner, and got into their sound library and come up with some sea gulls and some waves and I made the tape loop of that, brought them in and out of the holes, you know. Whenever the song took a little breather, I just kind of filled it with a sea gull or a wave.

Redding told Cropper during the recording session that this song needed some backing vocals. The Staple Singers were on their mind. Due to Reddings’ untimely death and Cropper being forced by their record label to quickly release something, their idea didn’t get executed.

Credits
Produced By
Mastering Engineer
Copyright ©
Phonographic Copyright ℗
Tenor Saxophone
Recorded At
Stax Studios (Memphis, Tennessee)
Release Date
January 8, 1968
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay Covers
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