Otis Redding - Stax Profiles: Otis Redding (2006)

Now here's a twist on the "artist select" best ofs that have been clogging the bins for the last couple of years: Steve Cropper, an artist almost symbiotically linked with Otis Redding, chooses his 13 favorite Redding tunes. Nope, "Dock of the Bay" isn't here, so this isn't a "best of" in any conventional sense of the word. What is here is a wonderfully deep and greasy set of cuts assembled by a cat who played on most of them and produced a slew too. There are two live numbers here, "Security" and "Good to Me," with a big band including six horns, that roar to the rafters. "Happy Song (Dum Dum)" and "Mr. Pitiful" are both here representing opposite sides of Redding's soul growler persona. But so are tunes that punters almost never see on the usual ten- or 12-track collections, such as "My Lover's Prayer," "I'm Sick Y'all," and Redding's fine version of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." The short live version of "Shake," from the Stax/Volt Revue, Vol. 3: Live in Europe -- Hit the Road Stax, and the simmering Sidney Wyche ballad "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend" are here, too. Stax Profiles is a killer little comp compiled with a very personal touch. © Thom Jurek