Edit 1 for headphones, May 24, 2021. Otis Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967, a month before this song was released (January 8, 1968) and three days after he recorded it. It was by far his biggest hit and was also the first ever posthumous nr.1 single in the US. Otis was a rising star moving toward mainstream success at the time of his death.
Otis had been at San Francisco playing The Fillmore and he was staying at a boathouse (in Sausalito, across the bay from San Francisco), which is where he got the idea of the ship coming in. That's about all he had: "I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again." He took that and finished the lyrics.
Redding ended up sitting on a dock on the San Francisco Bay thanks to Bill Graham, who ran the Fillmore West Auditorium. Redding played three shows there, December 20-22, 1966. Graham gave Redding a choice: he could stay at a hotel, or at a boathouse in nearby Sausalito. Redding liked the outdoors, so he chose the boathouse.
The end of this song contains perhaps the most famous whistling in music history. It wasn't planned, but when Steve Cropper and Stax engineer Ronnie Capone heard it, they knew it had to stay. Cropper explained on his website: "If you're an Otis Redding fan you'd know that he's probably the world's greatest at ad-libbing at the end of a song. Sometimes you could go another minute or two with Otis Redding's ad-libs - they were so spontaneous and felt so great. And this particular song I think baffled Otis a little bit because of the tempo and the mood, so when we got down to the end of it he really didn't have anything to ad-lib with, and he just started whistling. That just sparked Ronnie Capone and myself off, and almost immediately we said, 'Hey man, that's great, leave that in there.' It sure is a cool melody to go out with."
Redding recorded this with Booker T. & the MG's, the house band for Stax Records.
Otis Redding – vocals
Booker T. Jones or Isaac Hayes – keyboards
Steve Cropper – guitar
Donald Dunn – bass guitar
Al Jackson Jr. – drums
Wayne Jackson – trumpet & trombone
Andrew Love – saxophone
Charts:
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles 1
US Cashbox Top 100 3
UK Singles 3
New Zealand 3
South Africa 3
Holland 6
Canada 7
Ireland 13
Italy 29
Russia - (backward totalitarian state)
China (backward totalitarian state)(origine of pandemic viruses)(producer of bad quality products)
Iran - (backward totalitarian state)
Syria - (backward totalitarian state)
North-Korea - (backward totalitarian state)
Cuba - (backward totalitarian state)
etc.
(SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY
(Steve Cropper/Otis Redding)
sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes
watching the ships roll in
then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
wastin' time
I left my home in Georgia
headed for the Frisco Bay
'cause I've had nothin' to live for
it look like nothin's gonna come my way
so I'm just gon' sittin' on the dock of the bay
watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time
look like nothin's gonna change
everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
so I guess I'll remain the same, yes
sittin' here restin' my bones
and this loneliness won't leave me alone, listen
rwo thousand miles, I roam
Just to make this dock my home
now I'm just gon' sit, at the dock of the bay
watchin' the tide roll away, ooh yeah
sittin' on the dock of the bay
wastin' time
®© UMG, WMG (on behalf of Warner Catalog and O/H); PEDL, UMPI, LatinAutor - UMPG, Harry Fox Agency (Publishing), LatinAutorPerf, UMPG Publishing, CMRRA, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, BMI - Broadcast Music Inc., LatinAutor - Warner Chappell
