Otis!: The Otis Redding Story

Otis!: The Otis Redding Story
By Scott Freeman
St. Martin’s Press, $24

An exclamation point in a book title would seem to spell trouble, but Otis Redding’s hip-shaking, joy-inducing music earns such punctuation. Scott Freeman writes a smooth biography of the poor kid from Macon, Georgia, who whistled his way to number 1 with “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” — and died in a plane crash three days after recording it. Otis! vividly depicts the studio sessions, where Redding yelled at his horn section like a football coach. The author recounts how Redding’s relationship with his white manager, Phil Walden, deteriorated as they both grew wealthy. (He cites a conspiracy theory that Walden sabotaged Redding’s plane.) But Freeman struggles to illuminate the singer’s personality as clearly as his songs still do. Maybe it’s impossible for writing to match the music’s fire — but that’s what exclamation points are for.
—Jonathan Eig