When people ask me what my favorite award is, it’s difficult to name one, like saying who is your favorite child (I have four). But more often than not this award comes to mind — a gold RIAA White Matte single for the iconic song by Otis Redding, (Sittin On The) Dock Of The Bay …
Released in January 1968, it was recorded by Otis Redding days before his death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. He started writing lyrics in August 1967, while sitting on a rented houseboat in Sausalito (across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco) and completed it with the help of co-writer and Stax producer Steve Cropper. It’s release on Stax Records’ Volt label in 1968, became the first posthumous single to reach #1 on the Billboard charts and it was certified RIAA gold on 3/11/68.
Jim Stewart was the founder of Stax Records and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Redding was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989.