Top 10 Otis Redding Songs

Photo: Volt Records / Public domain via Creative Commons

Our Top 10 Otis Redding Songs list looks back at the career of one of the greatest singers of all time. While many R&B and soul singers became best known for either uptempo numbers or ballads, Otis Redding could dominate both. He could rock and swing with tremendous force, then make a listener feel every ounce of pain in one of his slow, wounded performances.

It is impossible not to wonder what Redding might have accomplished if his life had not been cut short in a plane crash in 1967. He had already created an extraordinary body of work and established himself as one of the defining singers and songwriters of the 1960s.

Redding’s albums combined original compositions with songs associated with other performers. That was common during the 1960s, when artists including The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and the Righteous Brothers also recorded mixtures of covers and original material.

Otis Redding released six studio albums during his lifetime. Pain in My Heart appeared in 1964, followed by The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads and Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul in 1965. He released The Soul Album and Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul in 1966. His final lifetime studio release was King & Queen, the 1967 duet album with Carla Thomas.

Four additional studio albums assembled from completed recordings appeared after his death: The Dock of the Bay, The Immortal Otis Redding, Love Man, and Tell the Truth. The ten selections below preserve our original ranking while celebrating both Redding’s songwriting and the remarkable way he transformed material written by other artists.

#10 – She’s All Right

We open our Top 10 Otis Redding Songs list with his first single, “She’s All Right.” Credited to the Shooters featuring Otis, the recording was made during Redding’s 1960 stay in Los Angeles and released through the small Trans World label.

The performance predates his relationship with Stax and Volt by two years. Redding was still developing the enormous vocal authority heard on his later records, but the single captures an ambitious young singer already reaching toward the rougher, more urgent sound that would define his career.

#9 – Pain in My Heart

“Pain in My Heart” became the title track of Redding’s debut album, released in 1964. The song had appeared as a Volt single in 1963 before being included on the LP.

Redding’s performance demonstrates the dynamic control that separated him from so many singers. He could pull his voice back to a near whisper and then open it into a full cry without losing the emotional center of the song.

#8 – These Arms of Mine

“These Arms of Mine” is one of the most important recordings in the Otis Redding catalog. During an August 1962 session at Stax, Redding had driven guitarist Johnny Jenkins to Memphis and was allowed to sing after the scheduled work had ended. His performance of the original ballad convinced the label that it had discovered an exceptional new artist.

Released in October 1962, “These Arms of Mine” became Redding’s first significant success and his first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100. It later appeared on Pain in My Heart.

#7 – Shake (Live)

“Shake” captures the explosive side of Otis Redding’s stage presence. The version selected here comes from Live in Europe, released in 1967 and recorded during the Stax/Volt European tour.

Backed by Booker T. & the M.G.’s and the Mar-Keys horn section, Redding drives the performance at a pace that seems ready to break apart at any moment. The band never loses control, and the crowd’s response becomes part of the recording’s momentum.

#6 – Tramp

One of Stax Records’ most popular singers was Carla Thomas. “Tramp” paired Thomas with Redding on the 1967 album King & Queen.

Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin wrote the song, but Redding and Carla Thomas made the recording their own through playful insults, improvised dialogue, and undeniable chemistry. The performance sounds less like a formal duet than an argument between two people enjoying every second of the confrontation.

#5 – Mr. Pitiful

“Mr. Pitiful” appeared on The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads in 1965. Redding and Booker T. & the M.G.’s guitarist Steve Cropper wrote the song after Memphis disc jockey A. C. “Moohah” Williams described Redding’s ballad singing as pitiful.

The nickname became a sharp, compact soul record that reached number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 10 on the R&B chart. Redding turns the supposed insult into a statement of identity, singing with humor, confidence, and just enough hurt to justify the name.

#4 – I Can’t Turn You Loose

The horn introduction to “I Can’t Turn You Loose” should sound familiar to fans of Jake and Elwood Blues. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd used the song as a central piece of the Blues Brothers stage presentation.

Redding wrote and recorded the song in 1965. Its surging horn figure, hard backbeat, and repeated vocal declarations made it a natural concert opener and one of the clearest examples of his ability to turn a simple musical idea into overwhelming excitement.

#3 – A Change Is Gonna Come

Otis Redding’s recording of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” stands among his greatest vocal performances. It appeared on Otis Blue in 1965.

Redding does not imitate Cooke’s original. He delivers the song with a heavier, more desperate intensity, pushing against the arrangement until each line sounds like a personal plea. Otis Blue remains one of the essential soul albums of the 1960s, and this performance is one of its emotional peaks.

#2 – (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay

“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” became the only Billboard Hot 100 number-one single of Otis Redding’s career and the first posthumous number-one single in American chart history.

Redding wrote the song with Steve Cropper of Booker T. & the M.G.’s. They recorded it in December 1967, only days before Redding died. Cropper completed the production after the plane crash, and the single was released in January 1968.

The recording presented a quieter and more reflective side of Redding. Its unfinished final verse became the famous whistled passage, giving the song an open-ended quality that has only grown more moving with time.

#1 – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long

We close our Top 10 Otis Redding Songs list with “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” released in 1965 and featured on Otis Blue.

Redding co-wrote the song with Jerry Butler. It remains our favorite Otis Redding performance because his voice cuts directly through the arrangement. He sounds ready to collapse under the weight of the lyric, but each horn response lifts him into another plea.

The song contains everything that made Redding extraordinary: restraint, power, vulnerability, timing, and an ability to make a carefully constructed studio recording feel like an emotion happening for the first time.