Otis Redding started his musical career by singing in his church choir. He released songs starting in 1962 that usually just showed up on the R&B charts. He did write and record “Respect” in 1965 which later became a bigger hit for Aretha Franklin. He appeared at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles in April 1966. That led to his appearance at the influential Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967. In August of that year he wrote “(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay” with producer and guitarist Steve Cropper. The final recording session for that song was on Dec. 7th and Otis died in an airplane crash in Madison, Wisconsin on Dec. 10th.

“(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay” was released in Jan. 1968 and hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 record chart for four weeks, March 10 – April 6. It was the only number one hit for Otis on that chart and it was the first posthumous song to be number one on the Billboard chart.