Hard to Handle: Black America Sings Otis Redding

2012 collection dedicated to one of the greatest R&B/Soul songwriters of the '60s. Otis Redding isn't always thought of as a tunesmith, but he wrote or co-wrote 20 of the 31 R&B and Pop hits that charted for him between 1963 and 1969, plus a significant quantity of his non-chart singles and numerous album tracks. Otis also wrote a good number of songs that were recorded exclusively by other singers. Otis's songs were covered extensively both during his lifetime and posthumously. The sheer number of covers is very impressive, especially as he was only five years into his career when he was killed in a plane crash in late 1967. Here, then, are just over two dozen excellent versions of Otis' songs, sung mostly by people whose names will be almost as familiar as his is to students of soul music. Individually they sound terrific; collectively they show just how respected Otis was by his fellow artists during his lifetime and how that respect has carried on following his untimely death. Ace Records.