Otis Redding: Try a Little Tenderness

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This was written by Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly and Harry M. Woods and was first recorded on December 8, 1932, by the Ray Noble Orchestra with vocals by Val Rosing.

Bing Crosby recorded it in 1933.

Otis Redding recorded it in 1966 backed by Booker T & the MGs and it was released on his studio album Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul. As a single, it reached No 25 in the US in early 1967.

It is ranked at No 104 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Here is a live performance from 1967 (Redding died in December that year, aged 26).

He also sang it at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, but the film is more interested in the audience than the band, so you needn’t bother to watch it. I included it only because someone was bound to say I had missed it.

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