Fact #156931
When:
Short story:
(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding enters the Billboard Top 40 Singles Chart in the USA, where it will peak at No1.
Full article:
Steve Cropper : Otis was one of those the kind of guy who had 100 ideas. [...] He had been in San Francisco doing The Fillmore. And the story that I got he was renting boathouse or stayed at a boathouse or something and that's where he got the idea of the ships coming in the bay there. And that's about all he had: "I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again." I just took that... and I finished the lyrics. If you listen to the songs I collaborated with Otis, most of the lyrics are about him. [...] Otis didn't really write about himself but I did. Songs like "Mr. Pitiful," "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)"; they were about Otis and Otis' life. "Dock of the Bay" was exactly that: "I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay" was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform.
(Source : interview on NPR's Fresh Air show, Sep 1990)
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(Source : interview on NPR's Fresh Air show, Sep 1990)