On This Day in Aviation History: Buried Near the Dock of the Bay

If there’s a more iconic beach music song than ‘Sittin On the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding, I don’t know what it is.  That epiphany, that is, my understanding of the greatness of “Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay”, has only come to me since being married to a “Carolina Girl” who has taught me the finer points of the beach music that she grew up with.  

Full disclosure: I’m a Yankee who grew up hardly listening to music at all.  In my northern Ohio upbringing, it was the girls who listened to music.  The boys I hung out didn’t listen to music or dance to it.  We were focused on being outdoors, riding bikes, “playing Army”, dreaming of airplanes, and then, when a little older, focused on sports, cars, airplanes, and girls, not necessarily in that order.

So, growing up in northern Ohio and until making it to my mid-teenaged years when finally, music started to spark an interest (mostly because the girls were interested and my interests had morphed to “where woman go, man go”, I couldn’t have picked out Otis Redding, or beach music, or even a Top-40 “hit” if my life had depended on it.

I’m glad to have had that epiphany.  And I recognize the sadness that on this day in aviation history in 1967, we lost Redding’s voice.

Otis Redding posing with the very plane that would crash and take his life just weeks later. Courtesy Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

According to History.com, “On its final approach to Madison, Wisconsin on December 10, 1967, the private plane carrying soul-music legend Otis Redding crashed into the frigid waters of a small lake three miles short of the runway, killing seven of the eight men aboard, including Redding. His megahit “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay” would be released in its “unfinished” form several weeks later. It would soon become history’s first posthumous #1 hit and the biggest pop hit of Redding’s career.

“When Redding left his final recording session in Memphis, he intended to return soon to the song he’d been working on—“Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay.” He still had to replace a whistled verse thrown in as a placeholder with additional lyrics that he’d yet to write. In the meantime, however, there was a television appearance to make in Cleveland, followed by a concert in Madison, Wisconsin. And so he boarded the fateful flight.

Otis Redding in 1967, the year of his tragic death at age 26.  Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

“In the six months leading up to his death, Otis Redding had gone from one great success to another. In June, Aretha Franklin had taken a cover version of his song “Respect” all the way to #1 on the pop charts. Later that same month, the adulation of the young audience of rock fans at the Monterey International Pop Festival had transformed him into an icon of the blossoming counterculture thanks to his blistering, now-legendary live performance there. But if Otis Redding was only beginning to gain momentum within the largely white mainstream in 1967, he was already a giant in the world of soul music.”

Authorities pull pieces of Otis Redding’s plane from Lake Monona.  Courtesy Reddit.

Upward and onward!

Sources:  Histsory.com, Reddit, Wikimedia Commons, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame