Recording
The recording session took place at the Stax studios in Memphis. Guitarist Steve Cropper and Stax producer Jim Stewart both agreed with engineer Tom Dowd's decision to install a two-track recorder during the recording of "Mr. Pitiful". The stereo four-input Ampex mixer is used throughout the album, which means that the instrumentation is either in one channel or the other, but the vocals and echo are in only one channel. This is different for mono recordings, where only one channel is used. Sings Soul Ballads features Booker T. & the M.G.'s organist Booker T. Jones, pianist/guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, drummer Al Jackson, Jr., and the Memphis Horns, consisting of trumpeter Wayne Jackson, tenor saxophonist Charles "Packy" Axton and baritone saxophonist Floyd Newman. The album contains 12 songs, the majority of which are, as the album's name implies, soul ballads.
The album opens with "That's How Strong My Love Is". Written by Roosevelt Jamison and altered by Cropper, the song was first performed by O. V. Wright on Goldwax Records, where the song was cut by both Jamison and Wright. Redding's version was released days after the original. The Rolling Stones covered the song shortly afterward and included it on their album Out of Our Heads. Isaac Hayes made his debut as a pianist with Otis Redding, possibly on songs "Come to Me" or "Security". It is unclear because prior to 1966, the Memphis Musicians Union kept little or no sessions documentation; Fantasy Records, who bought Stax in 1977, has none at all prior to 1966. That Hayes debuted in 1964 with Redding is known; which song remains in question. "Come to Me", Redding's fourth Volt single, was written by Cropper and Phil Walden and became the second song after the Volt session not to feature a horn section. The song is a typical 6/8 ballad and features piano triplets, including an organ. The single peaked at number 69 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
"Mr. Pitiful" was recorded in December 1964 at the Stax studios. The song was written by both guitarist Steve Cropper and Redding, and was their first collaboration. It was inspired by and written as a response to a statement made by radio disc jockey Moohah Williams, who had nicknamed Redding "Mr. Pitiful" for sounding pitiful when singing ballads. Cropper heard about this and, while taking a shower, got the idea it would make a good song. In the car on the way to the studio, Cropper proposed the idea with a melody already in mind, humming it to Redding. By the time they reached the studio, the song was written and they recorded it in two or three takes. It was released as a single with the B-side "That's How Strong My Love Is". The song became a hit and the album's most successful track, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard R&B and at number 50 on Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Read more about this topic: The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)