
When did “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” come out? Of this track was inspired by an attempt by the artist to sound more like Theīeatles and that fact that Redding was evolving artistically in general due to recent It should be noted that Redding’s composition Redding and Cropper are the only two writers of this song. However, Redding’s lyrics are still based on real-life events. In fact they were inspired by his stay in a boathouse in Sausalito, California. Otis “didn’t really write about himself”,Īnd as such he was the one who usually handled the task of writing lyrics about The rest of it was penned by Steve Cropper, a guitarist who wasĮmployed, like Redding, by Stax Records. Indeed Cropper claims that Otis Redding only wrote the first verse of This classic earned Otis Redding a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance and both he and Steve Cropper a Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Song.

However, Redding added this part only because he forgot the actual lyrics he intended to use in that section. Indeed this now-iconic whistling was more or less a placeholder, as in if Redding had actually survived to rework the song it is postulated that it would have been removed. In fact the whole song would have likely sounded differently had Redding lived to work on it further. Many have dubbed the outro to this song as “perhaps the most famous whistling in music history”. (BMI) has accredited “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” with being “the sixth-most performed song of the 20 th century”, despite the fact that the artist behind it never had a chance to do so live. But for the sake of history, the most-notable cover is perhaps Michael Bolton’s, as not only did his rendition help launch his career, but it is also the favorite version of Zelma Redding’s, Otis Redding’s widow. Logically a song of this magnitude has been covered by a number of artists.



Facts about “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”
