There were concerns that 'The Dock of the Bay' had too much of a pop feel for an Otis Redding record, and contracting the Stax gospel act the Staple Singers to record backing vocals was discussed but never carried out. While discussing the song with his wife, Redding stated that he had wanted to 'be a little different' with 'The Dock of the Bay' and 'change his style'.

The song is somewhat different in style from most of Redding's other recordings. Redding's restrained yet emotive delivery is backed by Cropper's succinct guitar playing. Together, they completed the music and melancholic lyrics of '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay.' From those sessions emerged Redding's final recorded work, including 'Dock of the Bay,' which was recorded on November 22, with additional overdubs on December 7.

'Dock of the Bay' was exactly that: 'I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay' was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform. Pitiful,' 'Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)' they were about Otis and Otis' life. Otis didn't really write about himself but I did. If you listen to the songs I collaborated with Otis, most of the lyrics are about him. And that's about all he had: 'I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again.' I just took that. And the story that I got he was renting boathouse or stayed at a boathouse or something and that's where he got the idea of the ships coming in the bay there. He had been in San Francisco doing The Fillmore. Otis was one of those the kind of guy who had 100 ideas. In a September 1990 interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Cropper explained the origins of the song: In November of that year, he joined producer and guitarist Steve Cropper at the Stax recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, to record the song. While touring in support of the albums King & Queen (a collaboration with female vocalist Carla Thomas) and Live in Europe, he continued to scribble lines of the song on napkins and hotel paper. He had completed his famed performance at the Monterey Pop Festival just weeks earlier. While on tour with the Bar-Kays in August 1967, Redding wrote the first verse of the song, under the abbreviated title 'Dock of the Bay,' on a houseboat at Commodore Seaplane slips in Sausalito, California.

5.1 Chart performance of other versions.

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