KING OF SOUL OTIS REDDING 12-10-1967

Otis Redding’s legendary status was due to his absolutely hot hot hot live performances. Otis was the most intense performer of the 1960's, Not even, James Brown, Little Richard, The Motown crowd and Jimi Hendrix could touch Otis Redding on stage!

Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix were both on the infamous Monterey Pop Festival bill. Otis lit up the audience with the intensity of his 20-minute performance and not by burning or smashing the band instruments.

On Dec. 10, 1967, a plane carrying Redding, his five-member band and the pilot crashed into icy Lake Monona on its way to two shows at a Madison Wisconsin nightclub.

The sole survivor of the plane crash, musician Ben Cauley, was rescued from the water after clinging to the wreckage for about 20 minutes.

Redding was just 26, Cauley, 20, when their plane crashed with five others on board. Cauley said he tried to save Redding, but couldn't.

"The plane was sinking right," recalled Cauley. "The waves was pushing me back when I was trying to get to him." Cauley said that the water was so cold that night that he started to go under. That's when a man pulled him out of the water. He didn't know until he boarded the rescue boat that he was the sole survivor. So sad for Ben to lose his friends and bandmates.

“Dock Of The Bay,” his only number one hit, was recorded a mere three days before his death on December 10, 1967. Released after his death, “Dock of the Bay” not only was his only Billboard Number One hit, it is also reported to be the first posthumous song to top the Billboard charts. Otis Redding was born in the small town of Dawson, Georgia.

At the age of 5, he moved with his family to Macon, Georgia. I lived near Macon at FT. Benning/Columbus GA. Some of my earliest memories of Otis Reddings' music were, "Respect" "Try a Little Tenderness", "These Arms of Mine", "Love Man" and "(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay" Full Bio Here