There was a very known saying within the music industry for those who were fed up hearing the same repetitive songs on rotation on so many (most) bland radio stations and that was, (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay was the only song Otis Redding ever recorded because that was the only song radio stations would play, but he did so many terrific songs that so many people never got to hear. Margaret, who requested this said, “Hi John (sic), I heard Otis Redding’s Try A Little Tenderness on the radio the other day which made a nice change from the overplayed Dock of the Bay, and the DJ said it was a very old song but proceeded to say no more. I didn’t know that, can you give some history on your Single of the week feature please.” Well, Margaret, I certainly can.
Firstly, respect to the radio station for playing it but you didn’t say which one it was, not important, but yes, it’s an old song that was already over 30 years old when Otis released it in 1967 and it was his sixth UK hit. Sadly, Otis was very underrated in the UK. He charted 15 hit songs but only one made the top 10 – you can guess which one that was – the majority failed to make the top 20. What’s more astounding is that many people had an attempt at it long before Otis including the top drawer soul singers like Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke, but they got nowhere either. One of those mysteries.
This song began life in 1932, it was composed by the Northumberland-born composer Jimmy Campbell (not to be confused with two other unrelated songwriters of that name), the Massachusetts-born composer Harry Woods and Essex-born composer Reg Connelly and the pair met and began writing together in 1925. Their first collaboration was on the song Show Me the Way to Go Home under which they used the songwriter pseudonym Irving King but they were unable to find a publisher, so they published the sheet music themselves and reportedly sold around two million copies. Using the money from that song, they formed their own Campbell Connelly publishing firm in 1929.
In 1931, they wrote Goodnight Sweetheart with the band leader Ray Noble and recorded by many of the big names of the day including Rudy Vallee and Guy Lombardo. The following year they wrote Try A Little Tenderness and, given the success of the previous song, they gave it to Ray Noble and his Mayfair Dance Orchestra to record first and featured a British dance band singer called Valerian Rosing (shortened to Val Rosing on the label). Val was also a vocalist for Henry Hall’s Orchestra and Jack Payne’s Orchestra. Val moved to the States in 1938, changed his name to Gilbert Russell and, in the 60s, became a vocal coach in Hollywood.
The song has a simple message and that it, when your woman feels like she’s had enough, be gentle with her, show her love and do it in a tender, loving way. Advice that millions could, and should, use. The following year it was recorded by Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting and the band leader Ted Lewis who took it to number six on Billboard. Lewis charted 102 hits in the pre-rock era. Frank Sinatra gave it a go in 1947 and Aretha Franklin in 1962. Two years later, and after hearing Aretha’s version, Sam Cooke recorded it for his Sam Cooke at the Copa album in an attempt to appeal to a more upper-class and white audience and recorded it a part of a medley with (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons and You Send Me, but it remained an album track.
Otis Redding was a massive fan of Sam Cooke and his record company and friends urged him to record a version after he’d heard Cooke’s version, but he didn’t like Cooke’s version and reportedly thought it was a bit of a joke. Everyone kept hounding him to lay it down and eventually he caved it and did and it became his signature tune.
Redding recorded it for Stax in Memphis under the guidance of Isaac Hayes who also produced it and played organ and backed by members of Booker T. & The M.G’s. The horn section in the intro was inspired by the string arrangement on Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come. There are no drums until the second verse and these only happened when, during rehearsal, Al Jackson began rim shotting and it was decided to leave it in. Some of the ad-libs in the song which Otis included at the last minute were inspired by Just Squeeze Me (But Don’t Tease Me) by Duke Ellington. There is also a cymbal pattern in the middle which Hayes later used on his own 1971 hit Theme From Shaft.
Others who have attempted Try A Little Tenderness are Tom Jones, Dean Martin, Three Dog Night as a tribute to Otis 18 months after he died, Golden Earring, Rod Stewart, The Commitments, Etta James, Michael Buble and an unplugged version for MTV by Florence & The Machine in 2012, but none are as identifiable as Otis Redding even though it stalled at a very lowly number 46 in the UK. Oddly, in 2015, his version was used on American television to advertise McDonald’s Chicken Select Tenders, why? purely because it had the word ‘tender’ in the title. I know which one I would have preferred.
Otis had a further five hits in 1967 with a cover of the Beatles’ Day Tripper (no.43), Let Me Come On Home (no. 48), Shake (no.28), Tramp and Knock on Wood with Carla Thomas (no. 18 and 35 respectively).
Three days after recording his most famous tune, (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, in December 1967, Otis was en route from Cleveland to Wisconsin when his plane Beechcraft H18 crashed into Lake Monona killing most on board including his band, The Barkays except the trumpet player Ben Cauley who was the only survivor. He eventually passed away in 2015.
The song continues to reach new audiences because in 2011 Jay-Z & KanYe West released the song Otis from the album Watch the Throne, it sampled parts of Otis vocals and peaked at number 28.