A debut assembled from the early recordings
Released in 1964, Pain in My Heart was Otis Redding's first album. It brings together recordings from 1962 and 1963, placing his own songs alongside established material. “These Arms of Mine” belongs to that beginning, as do his versions of “Stand by Me” and “You Send Me”. The selection connects his emerging work as a writer with songs he could reshape as a singer.
The recordings belong to the Stax environment in Memphis. Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones and Al Jackson Jr. are among the musicians documented on the album. Voice, rhythm instruments and horns share the task of carrying the songs. Listen to how an accompaniment prepares a vocal line and where it waits to answer afterwards. Those exchanges account for an important part of the music's movement.
Bringing a song into his own voice
“You Send Me” draws on Sam Cooke's writing, while “Lucille” brings in material associated with Little Richard. “Louie Louie” and “Stand by Me” add further familiar melodies. The choices make the debut an encounter between different sources and an individual vocal personality.
Alongside them sit Redding originals including “Hey Hey Baby”, “Security” and “That's What My Heart Needs”. The source of the material changes, but the singer connects the programme. You can ask the same questions of each performance: where does he place a syllable against the rhythm, where does he delay a phrase, and how does the accompaniment alter its effect? These details reveal differences beyond whether a title happens to be familiar.
Returning to These Arms of Mine
“These Arms of Mine” was Redding's first Volt single and remains a central part of this early period. On the double LP offered here, it opens the third side. Turning the record provides a fresh entrance into a song whose story began before the album. The twelve selections are divided evenly across four sides.
The running order moves between slower pieces and more active numbers before closing with “Lucille”. Hearing the complete sequence makes the breadth of the debut apparent. It presents Redding as a writer, an interpreter of other people's material and a singer working within an ensemble. These perspectives complement each other across the record, giving the familiar songs a setting within a larger programme.
This edition
Analogue Productions AAPA 055-45, from the Atlantic 75 Series, contains two 180-gram LPs at 45 RPM in mono. The publisher credits Bernie Grundman with mastering from the original analog master tape. Its product page specifies Quality Record Pressings and a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket. Each side contains three songs, preserving the twelve-selection programme of Pain in My Heart.
Also on SACD: Pain In My Heart
More by Otis Redding: The Soul Album · The Dock Of The Bay
Customer questions: Atlantic 75: which titles are worth buying? · Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe
Series: Atlantic 75 Series – all 75 albums, time journey and the people behind Atlantic
Musicians
Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.
| Name | Instrument / role |
|---|---|
| Otis Redding | Vocals |
| Booker T. Jones | Piano, Organ |
| Steve Cropper | Guitar, Piano |
| Johnny Jenkins | Guitar |
| Lewis Steinberg | Electric bass |
| Al Jackson Jr. | Drums |
| Wayne Jackson | Trumpet |
| Packy Axton | Tenor saxophone |
| Floyd Newman | Baritone saxophone |
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