Otis Redding

When Otis Redding first set foot in Memphis' Stax Records, he was a driver for blues guitarist Johnny Jenkins. Sure enough, when Jenkins' session went south, Otis stepped up to the mic, let loose with "These Arms of Mine," and never looked back. All at once, the heat and heart of Southern soul music had found its voice — that unimaginably powerful thing behind the devotion of "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)," the good-time Saturday night of "Shake," and the sweet contentment of "The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)."

When you think of Otis, chances are you think of a man reduced to his knees, mic in hand, heart on sleeve, not so much singing as ple-e-e-eadin' soul-stirrers like "Cigarettes and Coffee" and "Thousand Miles Away." But Otis was also known to turn out the house with stage shows that literally caused steam to rise from his head. If you doubt it, hit "Shout Bamalama," slide up the volume, and remove yourself to a safe distance — much like the live version of "Can't Turn You Loose," the cut comes equipped with locomotive power.

Deep Cuts is where we take you deep into them Georgia woods, deep into the streets of summertime Memphis — deep into the heart of Otis. We're past the hits, hunkering down over album cuts like the swooning beauty "Ton of Joy" and the joyful oddity that is Redding's jingle for Coca-Cola ("Coca Cola Radio Spot"). And we just keep piling 'em on: a heaving slab of Southern soul ("Pounds and Hundreds"), a reimagined cover of a soul hit ("Cupid" by Redding's idol, Sam Cooke), a welcome word to the wise ("Announcement (From Stay in School)").

Nobody pleaded for her to come on home like Otis Redding. Come to think of it, nobody shouted our joy or sang our struggle like Otis either. See, Otis Redding was soul — the most exquisite expression of our deepest hopes and fears. From the time he walked through the front doors of Stax Records at the tender age of 21 till the time he was taken from us in a plane crash just five years later, he laid his life — our lives — on wax, in the process building one of the most devastating catalogs in all of recorded music. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," "Try a Little Tenderness," "These Arms of Mine," "Respect," "Hard to Handle": the songs tell the story. Dig in.