The Chain #3

Well that was a roaring success, wasn’t it?

You may remember that last week I posted the second record in the official chain from Radcliffe & Maconie’s 6music show (or their Radio 2 show as it was at the time), and invited y’all to make suggestions as to where we could go next.

With thanks, then, to Alex G from the wonderful We Will Have Salad blog for being the only person to suggest a record that could follow Booker T & The MG’s “Soul Limbo”. So Alex, thank you for your suggestion (and I’m not going to trample all over your gag again, unless by mentioning it I just have done):

“…not wanting to go down the cricket route (especially as that’s kind of the same connection as the last one) I suggest instead “Love Town” by popular music’s other mildly successful Booker, Booker Newberry III. We could vote on which one is better and award some kind of prize.”

And so here it is:

Booker Newberry III – Love Town

One of the many reasons that I enjoy writing this blog is that every now and then I get a message from one of you, thanking me for reminding them of a band or a song that I’d featured and which they had completely forgotten about. I never thought that it would be me that had the old grey cells jogged, but this was one such record, that had fallen out from my memory banks to be replaced by a new password or something trivial like that. So, for that, cheers Alex, much appreciated.

Which leads me to the 3rd record in the official Chain:

3. Otis Redding – (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay

The connection? Well, in the 1960s, as members of the house band of  Stax Records, Booker T and the MGs played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Albert King…and Otis Redding.

Interesting fact: the iconic whistling part of that was never meant to be; according to co-writer Steve Cropper, Otis had “this little fadeout rap he was gonna do, an ad-lib. He forgot what it was so he started whistling.”

So, your suggestions please for a track to follow on from Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”. Please send them via the Comments section, below. I’m going to carry on even if you don’t, so you may as well join in.

And, not that I’m attempting to guide you in anyway, but here’s Vic and Bob being Otis and Marvin:

More soon.