Otis Redding - A Man And A Woman (Things Go Better With Coke)

So while my computer was broken, I was stuck with what I had uploaded to my MP3 player, which turned out to be this wonderful Otis Redding box set. Over the course of a few weeks, I spent at least 36 hours listening to those four discs, over and over and over, and I never got tired of it. Otis Redding was an amazing performer, and if I ever get time machine access, he's one of the top ten concerts I'll be attending with it.

Case in point -- soda commercials don't have to be great. Especially if the song's already written, and you just have to teach your band the chords and half-heartedly sing it, then whole-heartedly cash the check. But listen to this: it's 90 seconds long, and the product isn't even mentioned for the first fifth of it. If you're not listening carefully, or expecting a commercial, it just sounds like a classic Redding song. Otis and the band worked up a huge arrangement, and wrote a whole new framework around a pre-existing jingle, and Coke approved it. Coke's ad agency was full of geniuses; compare with this ad by Ray Charles. They hired every pop singer they could, and that's one reason they built such a large market share.

Otis Redding - A Man And A Woman (Things Go Better With Coke)
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Multiple Mondays: Theme From Shaft

All right. I've been sitting on these way too long, so let's get this done!

Everyone who knows anything about music or pop culture knows Isaac Hayes' iconic "Theme From Shaft." Here are ten of the best recordings related to that track.

The legendary hi-hat riff was first heard in Otis Redding's 1966 version of "Try A Little Tenderness," which had been arranged by Ike while Booker T. Jones was at university. Five years later, Hayes reused the riff, and a stuttering wah-wah guitar, to secure his status as a legend of funk and soul music, with the theme to a major film hit.

The Ventures covered the song the next year, and at about the same time the original backing musicians from Ike's version recorded a sequel, "Son of Shaft." Now we'll leave behind any attempt at chronological organization, as we jump forward a few decades to Malik Adouane's Arabic pop cover. (video) The Central Band of the Canadian Forces play you a representative marching band version, and then we come to Sammy. Sammy Davis, Jr. reused the original backing band (but not the original lyrics) to record his own Rat Pack take on the song, in which "Shaft is the man."

To round out this post, I've added Cookie Monster's note-perfect parody (be sure to watch the video), and a cover by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Finally, we'll listen to Isaac Hayes revisit the song in 1978's disco remix "Shaft II."

As always, you can cherry pick if you insist, but there's a special little surprise in the zipfile you can't get otherwise. I'm planning a second edition of this song soon -- if you have requests for any particular versions, just shout them out in the comments section.

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01. Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness 1 2
02. Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft 1 2
03. The Ventures - Theme From Shaft 1 2
04. The Bar-Kays - Son of Shaft 1 2
05. Malik Adouane - Shaft 1 2
06. The Central Band of the Canadian Forces - Theme From Shaft 1 2
07. Sammy Davis, Jr. - John Shaft 1 2
08. Cookie Monster - Cookie Disco 1 2
09. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - Theme From Shaft 1 2
10. Isaac Hayes - Shaft II 1 2

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas - New Year's Resolution

Hey, all. I don't have a lot of time to write up this post today, but I just wanna say this: Happy New Year! Another decade's come and gone; here's hoping we progress as a species a little more this decade than we did during the most recent one!

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas - New Year's Resolution
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Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas

Last year around this time, the MP3 blogosphere was abuzz with news that Okkervil River had just released a new album-length collection of covers and live recordings for free, only on the band's website. I'm never one to sneer at things that are free, and so I downloaded it. And listened to it, over and over again.

I'm not a traditional music customer, as a quick perusal of this blog will certainly show, but this worked on me. (Don't believe me? Click on Okkervil River's tag at the bottom of this post.) Since that time, I've seen the band live and own copies of every single CD they've put out. The songs have crept into my soul, and this song I'm posting today has made my cry virtually every time I've heard it. (Hence its place in my Depressing Little Christmas mix, which I'm posting here on the 21st.)

This song is so tender, so explicitly rooted in personal existence and loss that the Otis Redding quote doesn't feel like a cheat at all. Rather, it feels like something that Otis Redding, were he still alive, would send a letter to the band thanking them for. The song gives us two or three details about home, about the relationship, and a quote from that song you listen to and cry and think about the breakup, and we fill in the rest of the story from our own lives.

This song is in two of my "playlists": It's in my Christmas playlist, and my Okkervil River playlist, which means in the last twelve months I've heard it probably two dozen times. Last week, I was listening to it, preparing to get misty, and ... I didn't anymore. This post is a thank-you to Will Sheff and the Okkervil River boys, yes, but more than that it's a thank-you to Tiki. Our relationship is still new and hobbling around on its little-deer legs: there's nothing formalized or set in stone about it, and the future holds nothing but surprises for us. But that doesn't matter: you've kept me from crying when I listen to this song, and that's the best Christmas present I'll get all year.

Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas (live)

Have Yourself A Bluesy Little Christmas

Here is 2007's second mix. This one focuses on rhythm, blues, and soul with some hints of gospel thrown in. (2008's mixes will be posted on the 21st and the 23rd of the month.)

You'll note that this CD and ...Country Little Christmas both started with variations on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." I actually had another one for the country CD, a Buck Owens tune called "Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy" but it didn't make the cut.

This CD contains two of my favorite Christmas records of all time, "White Christmas" by The Drifters and "Merry Christmas Baby" by Chuck Berry. I like both these songs so much they got their own posts earlier this month.

Tracklist:

01. Mark Anthony - Mama's Twistin' With Santa Claus
02. Lightnin' Hopkins - Santa
03. Canned Heat - Christmas Blues
04. The Drifters - White Christmas
05. Ray Charles - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
06. Elvis Presley - Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)
07. Chuck Berry - Merry Christmas, Baby
08. Ike and Tina Turner - Merry Christmas Baby
09. Champion Jack Dupree - Santa Claus Blues
10. Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa
11. Fat Daddy - Fat Daddy
12. Ron Holden - Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus
13. The Youngsters - Christmas In Jail
14. Seasick Steve And The Level Devils - Xmas Prison Blues
15. Leroy Carr - Christmas In Jail, Ain't That A Pain
16. The Harmony Grits - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
17. Charles Brown - Please Come Home For Christmas
18. Graham Parker and Nona Hendryx - Soul Christmas
19. Harmon Ray - Xmas Blues
20. Martin Sexton - Holly Jolly Christmas
21. The Black Ace - Xmas Time Blues
22. The Orioles - Lonely Christmas
23. Amos Milburn and Charles Brown - Christmas Comes But Once A Year
24. Otis Redding - White Christmas
25. B. B. King - Lonesome Christmas
26. Jimmy Liggins and His Drops Of Joy - I Want My Baby For Christmas
27. Solomon Burke - Presents On Christmas

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Multiple Mondays - Merry Christmas, Baby

I owe Charles Brown an apology. By all rights, and in the tradition of Multiple Mondays, his picture, or one of his album covers, should be over there to the right. (Keep reading to learn why I photoshopped a Santa hat on Chuck instead.)

You see, waaaaay back in 1947, rhythm and blues singer Charles Brown met a songwriter named Lou Baxter, who wanted him to record a song called "Merry Christmas Blues." Brown reworked the song and took it into the studio, where his usual collaborators, Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, provided the backing track. (Apparently it's actually Brown on the celeste, not an instrument you hear often on blues records.) Since then, Charles Brown rerecorded the song at least ten more times for about as many labels. I've included a version he did with Bonnie Raitt down below as a sample.

In 1958, Chuck Berry recorded his
version (the single included his new song "Run Run Rudolph" -- talk about a double A-side!). Chuck's version of this song is prime cover territory -- Johnnie Johnson's tinkly piano stands in for the celeste, while Chuck's almost-mournful guitar chills the happiness of the lyrics, showcasing the mellowness of this song. Also, Chuck doesn't include Brown's lyric "all lit up like a Christmas tree" -- this is a mellow version for cuddling by the fire with your baby, not rocking out or even swaying in time to the music. My good friend Steven Rusling suggested this song as his guest-post, and also sent along that alternate take down below, which just got released ten months ago in a massive box set I'm drooling over.

This post contains eight versions out of literally dozens and dozens that've been recorded. You get to hear B. B. King blast through the song, Ike and Tina rave it up, and Elvis starts out slow then builds to a rocking climax. Otis Redding's version is probably the happiest record he ever made. Next year I'll probably post a part two, and I'll inflict Mae West's version on you then. (I have a lot of good versions too, but hers will burn into your brain, like the rest of her full-length Christmas album.)

Johnny Moore's Three Blazers with Charles Brown
Chuck Berry (released take + alternate version_
Ike and Tina Turner
Elvis Presley
Otis Redding
B. B. King
Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown

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