The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads
By Otis Redding
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Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 That's How Strong My Love Is 2:24
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- A2 Chained and Bound 2:25
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- A3 Woman, Lover, a Friend 3:18
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- A4 Your One and Only Man 2:48
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- A5 Nothing Can Change This Love 2:59
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- A6 It's Too Late 3:00
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- B1 For Your Precious Love 2:49
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- B2 I Want to Thank You 2:35
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- B3 Come to Me 2:38
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- B4 Home in Your Heart 2:10
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- B5 Keep Your Arms Around Me 2:46
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- B6 Mr. Pitiful 2:26
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- Total length: 32:18
Rate/Catalog
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Review
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10 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads [p] 33 rpm
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The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads 33 rpm, Mono
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The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads 33 rpm, Mono
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The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads Remastered
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The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads 180 gram, 33 rpm
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The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads 180 gram, 33 rpm
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12 Reviews
This is a fine album and all, but Otis Redding also released the best album of his career within months of this one. Obviously comparing this album to Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul is unfair, but even when considered on its own, the music here isn't good enough consistently for me to really get into it. "Mr. Pitiful" and a few other tracks are strong though.
Favorite tracks: I Want to Thank You, Keep Your Arms Around Me, Mr. Pitiful
Favorite tracks: I Want to Thank You, Keep Your Arms Around Me, Mr. Pitiful
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Can I tell you how great it is to listen to a Stax record right after a Motown record? It's pretty damn great. And I must admit that there is a nonzero chance that listening to The Temptations prior to listening to Otis made me like this record even more than I would have normally.
Full disclosure: Otis Redding is my favourite male soul singer and probably my favourite soul singer. But it's not just his voice, it's also his aesthetic, which has as much to do with Booker T and the MGs and him, to the best of my knowledge.
Yeah, I'm not sure the material is all here on this album: I don't know the originals of the covers but I've definitely read criticisms that Otis' versions are not distinct enough. If I was more familiar with the covers maybe I'd be more critical. And certainly not all of the originals are up to the standard of some of his contemporaries, as songs. He wasn't the songwriter that Sam Cooke was or that Smokey Robinson is, or whomever you want to pick.
But most of my criticisms fade away when I hear him and the band. This is how I want '60s soul to sound: a great voice with some gravel and character (and maybe even fragility) with a lean backing and with a judicious use of horns - horns which sound much more like they belong on a blues record than a pop record. It's the sound of Otis' voice and the band that wins me over, even when I don't love the song. This is one of those records that I would play for someone who was wondering why some people think Southern Soul is preferable to the northern stuff, you can just feel the soul in this record, which is usually polished out in those northern recordings.
Neat piece of pseudo trivia: this may or may not have been Isaac Hayes' first recorded performance (on piano) though there is debate about it.
Full disclosure: Otis Redding is my favourite male soul singer and probably my favourite soul singer. But it's not just his voice, it's also his aesthetic, which has as much to do with Booker T and the MGs and him, to the best of my knowledge.
Yeah, I'm not sure the material is all here on this album: I don't know the originals of the covers but I've definitely read criticisms that Otis' versions are not distinct enough. If I was more familiar with the covers maybe I'd be more critical. And certainly not all of the originals are up to the standard of some of his contemporaries, as songs. He wasn't the songwriter that Sam Cooke was or that Smokey Robinson is, or whomever you want to pick.
But most of my criticisms fade away when I hear him and the band. This is how I want '60s soul to sound: a great voice with some gravel and character (and maybe even fragility) with a lean backing and with a judicious use of horns - horns which sound much more like they belong on a blues record than a pop record. It's the sound of Otis' voice and the band that wins me over, even when I don't love the song. This is one of those records that I would play for someone who was wondering why some people think Southern Soul is preferable to the northern stuff, you can just feel the soul in this record, which is usually polished out in those northern recordings.
Neat piece of pseudo trivia: this may or may not have been Isaac Hayes' first recorded performance (on piano) though there is debate about it.
Published
It baffles me what would lead a person to rate an Otis Redding release from this time period anything lower than 4 stars. I especially love Mr. Pitiful. Man I love that song. I could go on for days about how awesome it is... There are other great songs on this release and the horns are always on points. The opener is one of Otis's finest moments but for the most part you could put this on shuffle and never hit the next song button. This album makes me wish it were summer time and I had a convertable.
Published
As it happens, Otis Blue wasn't the only great album Redding made in 1965
Published
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A1
That's How Strong My Love Is
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A2
Chained and Bound
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A3
A Woman, a Lover, a Friend
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A4
Your One and Only Man
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A5
Nothing Can Change This Love
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A6
It's Too Late
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B1
For Your Precious Love
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B2
I Want to Thank You
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B3
Come to Me
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B4
Home in Your Heart
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B5
Keep Your Arms Around Me
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B6
Mr. Pitiful
In a week that promises to be supremely stressful and exhausting, my wife and I have agreed to use Otis Redding's first five albums as both a motivation for and a respite from the challenges that lie ahead.
Otis 2:
Otis Redding's debut album Pain in My Heart was a great vehicle for showcasing his versatility as an incredible vocalist, a show-stopping performer and a capable songwriter. His next full-length offering appears to announce a more singular focus. Titled The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, it suggests a unity in style and in tempo, but unless a very liberal interpretation of the word "ballad" is applied, this set is simply another classy, vital collection of passionate soul music.
The album does benefit from a greater sense of cohesion. The choice of cover songs seems to be better suited to Redding's extraordinary talents, and they blend quite well with Otis' own compositions. In particular, Redding's moving cover of Sam Cooke's "Nothing Can Change This Love" feels far more natural than the previous album's "You Send Me". Moreover, these cover songs aren't nearly as ubiquitous in their original form - in fact I did not know any of these songs before hearing them here. Moreover, the classic Stax rhythm section of Booker T and the MG's and the sassy brass of Memphis Horns seem tighter and more precise than on Pain in My Heart. Consequently, there are more notable moments of awe-inspiring instrumentation, such as the precision of the quickly plucked guitar on "A Woman, a Lover, a Friend" and the charmed interplay between the guitar and the piano on "Nothing Can Change This Love" and "For Your Precious Love". For his part, Otis Redding is more than up to the task of keeping up, as he delicately offers soothing assurance, wails soulful pleas, and blazes hyperbolic affirmations of his love and devotion with healthy doses of his playful, improvised add ons throughout. Particularly noteworthy is the immaculate control he exhibits in "Come to Me", which is one of the greatest vocal performances I have ever heard.
Despite this unity, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads has enough range to remain interesting. Indeed, tender ballads are in no short supply, with "Nothing Can Change This Love" and "Come to Me" serving as sterling examples of beautiful soul that gradually build to gorgeous climaxes as organs and brass join in the fray and "Chained and Bound" and "For Your Precious Love" competing for the throne of the sweetest song present. However, fiery opener "That's How Strong My Love Is" carries a thump far heftier than any ballad has a right to showcase, and is all the greater for it as the guitar, bass and horns become more and more insistent. Elsewhere, "Your One and Only Man", "Home in Your Heart" and "Mr. Pitiful" break free of the ballad format to twist off dance-worthy grooves and give Otis the chance to make you shake your shoes. Ultimately, while Otis Redding would be more than capable of pulling off an album entirely comprised of ballads as the title suggests, this variety is welcome here.
While there may not be as many hair-on-end moments on the Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads as on predecessor Pain in My Heart (that ending of "That's What My Heart Needs" is truly earth-shattering stuff), it is wholly more consistent in quality and concept, and hence serves as a natural bridge to the fully-realized glory that inevitably awaits tomorrow in the form of Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul.
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There was a time in my life when i listened to this every morning just about . Why ?
A) i was in love at the time.
B) booker t and the mgs + the memphis horns + otis = class.
"thats how strong my love is" "youre one and only man" "for your precious love" "home in your heart" "mr pitiful" are soul music of the highest quality.
A) i was in love at the time.
B) booker t and the mgs + the memphis horns + otis = class.
"thats how strong my love is" "youre one and only man" "for your precious love" "home in your heart" "mr pitiful" are soul music of the highest quality.
Published
OK, just my opinion once again but this is the ultimate "honey, you are staying over tonight" album ever if you get my drift- put Otis Soul Ballads on, and you've got it made. This album, I have always felt was the cream of the soul crop but also the epitome of sex - the kind of thing that Marvin and Al were going for, but aren't we all. I actually prefer this album to Otis Blue. True that it does stick to mostly ballad material, but it is also fresher material for me because it is not the more familiar song choices (Satisfaction, My Girl, Wonderful World) that one would hear on AM radio everyday, back in the day. Of course, you don't hear anything like this on the radio anymore, ever since no one knew what constituted an "oldie" anymore. Sigh...
A lesser known album from Otis, starting off boldly with That's How Strong My Love Is (should always be on your Otis comps, btw) and cruising with ease through many quality cuts, sustaining a gritty, heartfelt R&B throughout. Mr. Pitiful is probably the other well-known cut on this lp, but one would be hard pressed to find a more satisfying, cohesive statement from the artist. In fact, with uptempo numbers like Your One and Only Man and Home in Your Heart adding a change of pace, much less hokey than tracks like Louie Louie or The Dog from his debut, Otis was firmly on the path to greatest with this album. Great
A lesser known album from Otis, starting off boldly with That's How Strong My Love Is (should always be on your Otis comps, btw) and cruising with ease through many quality cuts, sustaining a gritty, heartfelt R&B throughout. Mr. Pitiful is probably the other well-known cut on this lp, but one would be hard pressed to find a more satisfying, cohesive statement from the artist. In fact, with uptempo numbers like Your One and Only Man and Home in Your Heart adding a change of pace, much less hokey than tracks like Louie Louie or The Dog from his debut, Otis was firmly on the path to greatest with this album. Great
Published
Excellent collection of deep soul ballads. I don't suppose it would matter if Otis was singing the yellow pages it would still sound amazing! Not quite as good as his debut but a nice bridge from that to Otis Blue.
Published
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