The Very Best of Otis Redding, Vol. 1

1	These Arms of Mine 2:34
2	Pain in My Heart 2:26
3	That's How Strong My Love Is 2:25
4	Mr. Pitiful 2:44
5	I've Been Loving You Too Long 2:57
6	Respect 2:12
7	I Can't Turn You Loose 2:49
8	(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 2:47
9	My Lover's Prayer 3:12
10	Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song) 2:43
11	Try a Little Tenderness 3:20
12	Shake 2:33
13	The Happy Song (Dum-Dum) 2:45
14	Tramp / Carla Thomas 3:02
15	(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay 2:42
16	I've Got Dreams to Remember 3:15

Barnes & Noble

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas talk to each other during their funky 1967 hit duet, "Tramp." "Otis, you're country," says Carla. "That's all right," he replies. Indeed, the rural twang in Redding's galvanizing voice gives it the kind of personality found in only the finest singers. DREAMS TO REMEMBER is a well-chosen two-disc version of the four-disc THE DEFINITIVE OTIS REDDING. It starts with "Shout Bamalama," the sort of up-tempo tune Otis sang to shake butts, and "These Arms of Mine," the type of soul ballad he sang to touch the heart. Redding was a gifted songwriter as well as a singer, with "Respect" probably his most famous tune (thanks to the Aretha Franklin version). Included are a number of classics he penned himself or with others -- "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "Mr. Pitiful," and "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay." The latter was recorded just days before Redding died in a 1967 plane crash, and it became the singer's biggest hit. 1967 was also the year that Redding began to attract a white audience after wowing the hippies at the Monterey Pop Festival and, fittingly, the second disc concludes with five exhilarating tracks of Otis Redding in concert. John Milward

All Music Guide

The Very Best of Otis Redding wasn't the first Otis Redding compilation but it is the best of the single-disc collections, distilling the high points across his career (up thru the posthumous hits "(Sitting' On) The Dock of the Bay" and the heartbreaking "I've Got Dreams to Remember") in 16 tracks, every one a musical milestone and a soul music high-point of one kind or another. Although aimed at the casual listener and the neophyte fan, there are some astonishing realizations to be had in listening to this disc and looking at the chart placements of the early sides, and realizing just how uniform his musical influence is -- "These Arms of Mine" and, especially, "Pain In My Heart," from 1962 and 1963, respectively, sold only a fraction of what his later singles did, yet they've been covered by so many artists since, that they're as familiar as any of the other, bigger hits on this disc. The collection is hardly comprehensive, but all of the major bases are touched, right down to his 1967 hit duet "Tramp" with Carla Thomas. The other advantage, especially for those on a budget, is that this was the first Otis Redding compilation to avail itself of the improved master tape research and analog-to-digital technology of the early '90s. Bruce Eder