It's New to Me: Pain in My Heart by Otis Redding (1964)

Image from an advertisement for Tareyton cigarettes, 1966

So my special lady friend bought me a set containing all five of Otis Redding's studio albums for my birthday. Of course, this set doesn't include "(Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay" because that was a posthumous single release, but it does contain an embarrassment of riches. Like a lot of people, I was surprised that Redding's albums are interesting for very different reasons than I'd anticipated - for one thing, he really doesn't have a great singing voice. His singing talent is in singing with feeling, and his emotive croak and howl get a message across as well as the beautiful singing voices of his time (Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson, two of Redding's favorite artists to cover). I was also surprised by the split between originals and covers on his albums - it's pretty much 50/50, and, although I hear that people often say he was more of an interpreter than a songwriter, I almost always prefer his compositions to the covers. I was also surprised to find that Booker T & the M.G.'s were Otis Redding's backing band on these albums - maybe that's common knowledge, but it was a very pleasant surprise to me because the musicianship on these records is great.

Take, for instance, Redding's first album, 1964's Pain in My Heart. It sets the formula that Redding used for all five of his albums. It has five Redding compositions, including the single "These Arms of Mine", a Sam Cooke cover ("You Send Me"), a couple recent pop hits ("Stand By Me", "Louie Louie"), and a couple older soul/blues numbers (Little Richard's "Lucille", Rufus Thomas's "The Dog"). Almost without exception, my favorite songs on the record are Redding's, even though he's often said to have been a journeyman songwriter at this point in his career - the Little-Richard-wannabe "Hey Hey Baby" is the only less-than-good song on Pain in My Heart written by Redding. "These Arms of Mine", "Something Is Worrying Me", and "That's What My Heart Needs" are all great, but my favorite is probably "Security". It's not one of Redding's best-known songs, but it features some awesome horn arrangements from the Mar-Keys with guitar counterpoints by Steve Cropper.

"Security" by Otis Redding