Soul singer Otis Redding looked to his forebears when perfecting his signature smoulder, balancing the romantic smoothness of Sam Cooke and Hank Ballard with the earthy gravity of Solomon Burke and Ray Charles. And for all his aching lover-man balladry, Redding took cues from James Brown and Little Richard when it came to exploiting the firecracker collision of gospel purity and rock ‘n' roll fury.