"Dock of the Bay" went on to gain success in countries across the world, and brought Redding the greatest success of his career, selling more than four million copies worldwide and receiving more than eight million airplays. The album, which shared the song's title, was released and became his largest selling to date, peaking at number four on the Pop Albums chart. The song shot to number one on the R&B charts in early 1968 and, from March, topped the pop charts for four weeks. R&B stations readily added the song to their playlists, which had been saturated with Redding's previous hits. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released in January 1968 amid the fall-out of Redding's death. Redding's body was recovered from the lake the day after the crash. Only one passenger survived, Ben Cauley of The Bar-Kays. Redding continued to tour after the recording sessions and, on December 10, the charter plane which was carrying him crashed into Lake Monona, outside Madison, Wisconsin. Redding had intended to return to the studio at a later date to add words in place of the whistling. The song features a machine sounding like the ocean waves, coming and going, as well as Redding's familiar whistling tune, heard before the song's fade. There were concerns that "The Dock of the Bay" had too much of a pop feel for an Otis Redding record, and contracting Stax gospel act The Staples Singers to record backing vocals was discussed, but never carried out.
While discussing his latest song with his wife, Redding stated that he 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, but one with which he was very pleased. Redding's restrained yet emotive delivery is backed by Cropper's memorably succinct guitar playing. Together, they completed the music and melancholy lyrics of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." From those sessions emerged Otis Redding's final recordings, including "Dock of the Bay," which was recorded on November 22, with additional overdubs on December 8.
"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' life. He didn't usually write about himself, but I did.
If you listen to the songs I wrote with Otis, most of the lyrics are about him. That's about all he had: "I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again." I took that and finished the lyrics. He had been at San Francisco playing The Fillmore, and he was staying at a boathouse, which is where he got the idea of the ship coming in. Anytime he came in to record he always had 10 or 15 different intros or titles, or whatever. Otis was one of those kind of guys who had 100 ideas. In a 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. While touring in support of the LPs King & Queen (collaborations with female vocalist Carla Thomas) and his live set Live in Europe, he continued to scribble lines of the song on napkins and hotel paper. He had come off his famed performance at the Monterey Pop Festival just months earlier in June 1967. 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 Waldo Point in Sausalito, California.
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