Pain In My Heart

Forty years ago today, on Dec. 10, 1967, the small plane carrying 26-year-old Otis Redding and four of six members of his road band, the Bar-Kays, crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, ending the life of one of the best rhythm and blues artists ever.

A fitting song to commemorate The Big O...

PLAY: Pain In My Heart - Otis Redding (1963)
PLAY: Pain In My Heart - The Rolling Stones (1964)
PLAY: Pain In MY Heart - The Grateful Dead (1966)
PLAY: Pain In My Heart - Helene Smith (1967)
PLAY: Pain In My Heart - Toots And The Maytals

Note: Original writing credit was "Redding" (the Stones version says Redding/Walden, Walden was Redding's manager). Otis and Stax were sued by Allen Toussaint who, as "Naomi Neville", had written Ruler Of My Heart (of which Pain was adapted) for Irma Thomas. As an out of court settlement, the credit was changed to "Naomi Neville".

Mercy, Mercy

Today brings a strong cold front into the south and I'm a bit hungover. The two decidedly unsettling feelings are taking a joint fray into today's confusing posting, replete with overlapping musicians, song titles, album releases, and career saving/establishing songs

There are several songs with titles very similar to today's Mercy, Mercy - most notably Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (which will be covered extensively in the next entry). There's also Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye. But so we're all clear, neither one of those songs has anything to do with today's song, the original by Don Covay, who was actually (and un-relatedly) in a band with Marvin Gaye and Billy Stewart called The Rainbows (nice, y'all - great name!) in the early 50's.

Don Covay really didn't have a great career until he recorded this song with The Goodtimers (and featuring a young Jimi Hendrix) in 1964. He had a bunch of other great songs and became quite successful as a result.

And then in 1965, there were three other great recordings of this tune. The Stones recorded one on Out of Our Heads. From Wiki:

Initially issued in July 1965 in America (featuring an alternate shot from the same photo session that graced the cover of 12 X 5 and The Rolling Stones No. 2), Out of Our Heads was a mish-mash of studio recordings over a six month period, including hit single "The Last Time" and worldwide smash "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as well as a sampling from the UK-only live EP got LIVE if you want it!. Riding the wave of "Satisfaction"'s success, Out of Our Heads became The Rolling Stones' first US #1 album, eventually going platinum.

Also in 1965, The Remains (who sound eerily similar to the early Stones, but were never really successful) recorded this, as did the great Wilson Pickett - a really nice, full-sound recording, too.

Enjoy.

PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - Don Covay
PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - Rolling Stones
PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - The Remains
PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - Wilson Pickett