Features

All Categories

'Pain in My Heart,' Otis Redding

Amazon.com

Mood-Setter Song: 'These Arms of Mine'

Otis Redding, one of the OGs of soul music, only released six albums before his unexpected death in 1967. While his posthumous album, 'The Dock of the Bay,' would be his most successful, it's his debut album, 'Pain in My Heart,' that showers ears with love. Redding stretches his timeless voice on covers like Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me' and Sam Cooke's 'You Send Me,' but gets most romantic on his own tracks, like the slow-tempo doo-wop 'These Arms of Mine.' "These arms of mine/ They are wanting, wanting to hold you ... " Redding sings with such conviction on the track that it feels like his voice is doing the actual holding.