Pain in My Heart

by Otis Redding

Overview

This album works on so many different levels, that it's essential listening for at least three categories of buyer -- fans of Otis Redding and Stax Records (natch), and more general soul listeners, and also anyone serious about their devotion to the work of the Rolling Stones and any other British invasion bands that covered American soul. Pain In My Heart was practically a road map to Mick Jagger and any number of other would-be white soul shouters in the UK, not just on the title track but also numbers like the hard rocking "Hey Hey Baby". For someone only 22 years old at the time of these sessions, and just two years past his first 45 rpm record, Redding exudes astonishing power, energy and boldness, though it's all packaged with greater restraint than his subsequent records did. This was the only LP that Redding recorded during the lifetime of his idol, Sam Cooke, and his version of "You Send Me" is the least stylized of any of his renditions of Cooke's songs -- later on, after Cooke's death, he would throw more of himself into it. The very fact that he was covering Cooke's soul classic shows an essential difference between Redding's and Cooke's early LPs; as Redding was on a soul label, no one tried to make him into a pop singer as that'd done at RCA with Cooke -- thus, he was running on all cylinders right out of the starting gate, though he wouldn't get really interesting or show his full depth until two albums later. But even covering Rufus Thomas's "The Dog", Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", Little Richard's "Lucille", or Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", he's already doing 70% of what we came to expect from Otis Redding in the years ahead -- his writing, apart from "Security", "These Arms Of Mine" and "That's What My Heart Needs", was still somewhat less than memorable, but this is still a first-rate debut and a must-own CD. ~ Bruce Eder

Product Details

Release Date:	08/06/2013
Label:	Music On Vinyl
UPC:	8718469533022
Rank:	33087

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Otis Redding   Primary Artist,Vocals
Johnny Jenkins   Guest Artist,Guitar
Wayne Jackson   Guest Artist,Trumpet
Floyd Newman   Guest Artist,Saxophone,Sax (Baritone)
Booker T. & the MG's   Guest Artist
Andrew Love   Sax (Tenor)
Charles "Packy" Axton   Saxophone,Sax (Tenor)
Donald "Duck" Dunn   Bass,Guitar,Guitar (Bass)
Al Jackson, Jr.   Drums
Steve Cropper   Piano,Guitar,Keyboards
Booker T. Jones   Organ,Piano,Guitar,Keyboards
Lewie Steinberg   Bass,Guitar (Bass)

Technical Credits

Bob Altshuler   Liner Notes
Big Joe Turner   Composer
Bill Inglot   Remastering
Bobby Robinson   Composer
Clarence Lewis   Composer
Clarence Paul   Composer
Barrett Strong   Composer
Don Gardner   Composer
Ed Townsend   Composer
Ben E. King   Composer
Fred Eaglesmith   Composer
Sam Cooke   Composer
Roger Bowling   Composer
Jim Stewart   Supervisor
Rufus Thomas   Composer
Naomi Neville   Composer,Lyricist
Jerry Leiber   Composer
Phil Walden   Composer
Richard Berry   Composer
Otis Redding   Composer,Lyricist
Mike Stoller   Composer
Al Jackson, Jr.   Overdubs
Margaret Wessen   Composer
Aaron Neville   Composer,Lyricist
Morris Levy   Composer
Albert Collins   Composer,Composer
Hal Bynum   Composer
Yves Beauvais   Reissue Producer
Luther Williams   Composer
Smokey Robinson   Composer
Little Richard   Composer
Norman Whitfield   Composer
Richard Penniman   Composer
James McDougal   Composer
Daniel Hersch   Remastering
Al Collins   Composer
Loring Eutemey   Cover Design