(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
| "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
An early US vinyl pressing | ||||
| Single by Otis Redding | ||||
| from the album The Dock of the Bay | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | January 8, 1968 | |||
| Recorded | November 22 and December 7, 1967 | |||
| Studio | Stax, Memphis, Tennessee | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:38 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Steve Cropper | |||
| Otis Redding singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" on YouTube | ||||
"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is a song co-written by the soul singer Otis Redding and the guitarist Steve Cropper. Redding recorded it twice in 1967, including just three days before his death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. It was released on Stax Records' Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous #1 single in the US. It reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart.
Redding started writing the lyrics in August 1967 while staying on a rented houseboat in Sausalito, California. He completed the song in Memphis with Cropper, a Stax producer and the guitarist for Booker T. & the M.G.'s. It features whistling and sounds of waves crashing on a shore.