The King of Soul

In 1967, Otis Redding achieved a significant amount of recognition as an R&B artist after his performance at the infamous Monterrey Pop Festival. Since the age of 19, he had been riding the proverbial rails of the black 1960's pop-music grind. Working as a songwriter for various 1960's pop acts, as well as touring southern universities as the frontman for a rhythm and blues act, Redding finally achieved a well-deserved notoriety for his colossal talent as an individual singer-songwriter.

Later that year, Redding began recording the song (Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay to be included on his next major-label release. There are varying accounts as to why the song remained unfinished, be it writers block or a subsequent plan to scrap the track altogether; regardless, Redding kept the recording intact by simply whistling through what would ultimately be a final verse. Three days later, he and his back-up band, The Bar-Kays, performed a concert in Cleveland while in the city making a promotional appearance on the "Upbeat" television program. On the way back home, the airplane carrying Redding crashed into a frigid Wisconsin lake. His 26 year-old body was soon recovered after a sweep of the lakebed.

He left behind a wife, two sons, a daughter, one unfinished song that happened to become the first posthumous #1 Billboard Top 100 single in history and a collection of unreleased songs - three of which hold spots in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Top 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll," a subsequent induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes