This album is full of classics, many of which are covers of standards or songs written by Redding’s contemporaries. It’s amazing music, with great grooves and expressive vocals, but I’m conflicted about how to rate the covers. On the one hand, originality has been a big factor for my Brain Rating in the past. However there have been many other covers in this newsletter so far, and one could argue that covers by Redding in honor of, for example, his recently departed friend Sam Cooke have more meaning than, say, Rod Stewart performing old blues standards. I don’t know if that’s my position, but it’s an option.

But I’m nitpicking. This album has 2 Otis Redding originals that are just stunning, “Respect” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” The covers are very different from the originals, almost transformed, and they have tons of meaning and history behind them. I got goosebumps too many times to count listening to this album.

Jams

“Ole Man Trouble”
“A Change Is Gonna Come”
“My Girl”
“Wonderful World”

Originally part of Understanding My Musical Taste With... Data!.