Timeline Otis Redding: The King of Soul

Otis Redding: The King of Soul 14

• 1941 Otis Redding born in Dawson, Georgia Raised in Macon Grows up in Macon, singing in church.
• 1958 Otis Redding wins the Douglass Theatre talent show Macon Wins the weekly talent contest so often he is barred from entering.
• 1960 Otis Redding joins Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers Driver and singer Works as the band's driver and occasional singer.
• 1962 Otis Redding records These Arms of Mine at Stax Leftover studio time Cut in the last minutes of a Johnny Jenkins session in Memphis.
• 1965 Otis Redding releases I've Been Loving You Too Long Ballad hit His first top-forty pop hit.
• 1965 Otis Redding releases Otis Blue Otis Redding Sings Soul With Respect, later Aretha Franklin's signature song.
• 1966 Otis Redding plays the Whisky a Go Go Los Angeles Wins over a white rock audience on the Sunset Strip.
• 1966 Otis Redding releases Try a Little Tenderness Slow-burn classic A 1930s ballad turned into a soul climax.
• 1967 Otis Redding tours Europe with the Stax/Volt Revue Hit the Road Stax A triumphant European tour with Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
• 1967 Otis Redding plays the Monterey Pop Festival Love crowd His set wins over the hippie audience — his breakthrough beyond soul.
• 1967 Otis Redding records Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay Written on a houseboat Written in Sausalito, finished with Steve Cropper in Memphis.
• 1967 Otis Redding dies in a plane crash Lake Monona, Wisconsin His plane crashes into a lake, killing him and four members of the Bar-Kays.
• 1968 Otis Redding's Dock of the Bay reaches number one First posthumous number one The first posthumous number one single in US chart history.
• 1989 Otis Redding inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Inducted by Little Richard.