According to Macon, “King Bee” Hamp Swain was one of the most important figures in music in the 20th century. In 1954, Swain became the first Black disc jockey in Macon, Georgia, broadcasting for WBML-AM. At the center of the burgeoning soul music scene, Swain and his own band, “The Hamptones,” gave a young, inexperienced singer his first chance to sing in a band. The singer, Richard Penniman, would later don the stage name, Little Richard. Swain also was the first jockey to play James Brown’s breakout song, “Please, Please, Please,” on the radio. Already connected to two of Otis Redding’s contemporaries, Swain also helped get Redding his first break.

As told by the official Otis Redding website, as a teenager, Redding routinely competed in talent shows at the Douglas Theatre for a $5 prize. After winning 15 straight competitions, Redding was banned from participating anymore. He then took his voice to a band, Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers, at the age of 17. The band participated in Swain’s talent competition called, “The Teenage Party.”

Though a fantastic singer, releasing his first single, “Shout Bamalama,” with the band backing him, Redding’s main job with the band was as their gofer, according to The Washington Post. He drove the band to Memphis where they auditioned at Stax Records. The audition was a disaster for the band, but Redding was allowed to sing “These Arms of Mine.” The song became Redding’s breakthrough as an artist.

The Apollo Theater in Harlem remains the Mecca for Black performers. The sanctuary holds the line, “Where stars are born and legends are made.” According to Soul Music, Otis Redding arrived in New York in 1963, not only to perform live on the hallowed grounds but also to record his first album, “Pain in My Heart.” The title could accurately describe Redding’s time in New York.

Redding was incredibly nervous leading up to the performance. Though an experienced singer in the South, Redding was less than a year out from his first singles, and now he was performing at the Apollo, says Stax Records. Redding’s nerves became the least of the problems. Financially strapped, the band stayed at the “big old raggedy” Hotel Theresa. Also, while Redding and his band were making $400 per week, the sheet music the band used cost $450 a week. Ben E. King, the headliners, gave Redding $100 to help.

King remembered how nervous Redding was before his performance. “Otis told me he was up from home and he was terrified … [he] said to me, ‘You think that they’re gonna go for what I do, what we do down home?'”

Still, as Redding stepped on the stage and belted out his soulful songs and emotional ballads, the crowd at the Apollo erupted in applause for the singer. On the 50th anniversary of his last single, “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” the Apollo honored Redding with a tribute concert, Billboard reports.

While successful on the soul charts, Otis Redding’s magnum opus during his life had to be his performance at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival. As the first of the big rock festivals, Monterey had been a coming-out party for artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, and Redding. Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, who also performed at Monterey, said this upon watching Redding, “I was pretty sure that I’d seen God onstage.”

Consequence reports that most of the Stax Records lineup, including Redding, were touring Europe when the festival was announced. Redding’s manager, Phil Walden, wanted to expand his star to a white audience, and after getting reassurance from The Rolling Stone’s manager, Andrew Oldham, and Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler that the festival was legit, Redding was signed up to close Saturday night.

Monterey Pop was meant to show rock music and all its influences and variations as a “legitimate art form.” Similar to his Apollo performance, Redding was very nervous, his wife recalled. Still, with an introduction from Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers and about half an hour, Redding closed Saturday with historical performance.

According to CBC, by the end of the performance, a reviewer said, “he had the audience spinning like a chicken on a spit.” Rainfall led authorities to push for the concert to end but not before Redding belted out two final covers, “Satisfaction” and “Try a Little Tenderness,” before leaving the stage to an audience dazed. Redding was finally a superstar.

That last song that Otis Redding worked on before going back on tour was “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.” The song was unlike any other song from Redding’s discography. It played more like something heard from Bob Dylan and not the man who just rocked Monterey and was called, “The King of Soul.” The origins of the song can be found following a favor from concert promoter Bill Graham.

In August, following a show, Graham had allowed Redding to stay on his houseboat, reports Rock History Music Lessons. On the boat, he wrote the lyrics to the song. While he had the words done, vocal surgery forced Redding away from the mic for a while. That November, Redding called Steve Cropper of Booker T & The MGs saying, “I got a hit” and to meet him in the Memphis studio. The pair wrote the rest of the lyrics and arrangement.

Redding closes out the song with a whistled outro. Cropper said he left the space for the duo to add lyrics if necessary, as Redding forgot the lyrics he wanted to close out on. Redding never heard the final version of the song, as he died shortly after the initial recording, and Cropper continued to work on the song. Cropper released the song at the insistence of Atlantic Records. In March 1968, the song hit No. 1, making Redding the first artist with a posthumously No. 1 song and his first top 10 single of his career.

Otis Redding both performed a number of covers that he made his own and has had his songs being covered by other artists. And it goes without saying that one cover stands out above the rest. According to Biography, in 1965, Redding wrote and released “Respect,” which did peak at No. 4 on the charts. Two years later, Aretha Franklin took the song and made it her signature song, with the song reaching No. 1. From a woman’s perspective, the song that originally came from a man’s point-of-view now became an anthem for the rising feminist movement in the United States.

During his career, Redding covered artists that inspired him in his youth, such as Little Richard’s “Lucille” and Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang.” He also put his touch on the British Invasion musical acts and his African-American contemporaries, such as James Brown, Eddie Floyd, and Marvin Gaye, according to Second-Hand Songs. The website also states that artists from Sammy Hagar to Sara Bareilles have put their own spin on “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.”

In 2011, as told by Billboard, Redding scored a second top 20 hit when Jay Z and Kanye West sampled his version of “Try a Little Tenderness” for their hit song, aptly titled “Otis.” Even more than four decades after his death, Redding’s beautiful voice and soulful wailing still resonate with an audience who had to look up the otherworldly voice over the two rap superstars.