Try a Little Tenderness
August 28, 2013 8:37 PM Subscribe
Try a Little Tenderness, a classic of R&B, and Otis Redding, in this 1967 version, recorded the day before he died, nailed it... in 1969, this old Italian guy, Jimmy Durante found that same soul feeling....
Try a Little Tenderness
And, if you enjoyed that... here's more of the Schnoz:
Make Someone Happy
I'll Be Seeing You
Young At Heart
As Time Goes By
Inka Dinka Doo
And, of course... Good Night Mrs. Calabash, Wherever You Are
a classic of R&B
Well, yes, the Redding version. But the song was originally recorded in 1932.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:00 PM on August 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
Well, yes, the Redding version. But the song was originally recorded in 1932.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:00 PM on August 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
And then there was this Irish band that once did a fairly decent job of it themselves... (keep your eyes open for a very young Glen Hansard on guitar.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:05 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:05 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh, Otis. What a waste.
Here's Otis nailing Try A Little Tenderness in Oslo, 1967. The sound quality is great, too.
posted by flippant at 9:11 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
Here's Otis nailing Try A Little Tenderness in Oslo, 1967. The sound quality is great, too.
posted by flippant at 9:11 PM on August 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
(keep your eyes open for a very young Glen Hansard on guitar.)
And Andrew Strong at, like, age 16. Still unbelievable.
posted by readyfreddy at 10:05 PM on August 28, 2013
And Andrew Strong at, like, age 16. Still unbelievable.
posted by readyfreddy at 10:05 PM on August 28, 2013
{schnozzola} Everybody's tryin' to get into the act! {/schnozzola}
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 10:25 PM on August 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 10:25 PM on August 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
This reminds me of a buddy from college's playlist for intimate occasions. Inexplicably named "doggin' tunes", it had about an hour's worth of your classic R&B tunes, including the Otis version of try a little tenderness, and, even more inexplicably, Goodbye Horses by Q Lazzarus. That song always seemed like literally the worst choice in the world for that kind playlist. We always tried to get him to ask a girl if they though he was sexy when the song came on, but he never did. I'm mostly telling this story because my other friend from college is moving to SE Asia in a week and so, as a result of going away activities, I'm drunk on a Wednesday. And being drunk on a Wednesday reminds me of college.
posted by daniel striped tiger at 11:18 PM on August 28, 2013
posted by daniel striped tiger at 11:18 PM on August 28, 2013
To clarify: this is why Goodbye Horses is the worst song ever for your sex playlist.
On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know how to get red wine out of a comforter?
posted by daniel striped tiger at 11:42 PM on August 28, 2013
On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know how to get red wine out of a comforter?
posted by daniel striped tiger at 11:42 PM on August 28, 2013
Try a Little Tenderness yt And, if you enjoyed that...
The Three Dog Night
posted by philip-random at 11:47 PM on August 28, 2013
The Three Dog Night
posted by philip-random at 11:47 PM on August 28, 2013
For me, the saddest thing about the Otis Redding version is that it fades out around the 3'57" mark.
posted by Mister Bijou at 12:12 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Mister Bijou at 12:12 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
There was a recent BBC documentary: Otis Redding - Soul Ambassador (which you can see here - highly recommended - the part I am talking about is 28 minutes in) that pointed out the publishers of Try a Little Tenderness sued Stax to try to prevent a release of the song on the grounds that it would damage the song's schmalzty white reputation that it had enjoyed since the 30s. If you listen to Bing Crosby's version from 1955 you can see how far the MGs changed the song from the original.
posted by rongorongo at 12:56 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by rongorongo at 12:56 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
See also "How Try a Little Tenderness Got its Soul and Lost It" which covers the history of song up until 1966 and then to the present day.
posted by rongorongo at 1:07 AM on August 29, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by rongorongo at 1:07 AM on August 29, 2013 [5 favorites]
"almost no one remembers how the song first jumped from crooners to modern soul": Little Miss Cornshucks
posted by bonefish at 3:04 AM on August 29, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by bonefish at 3:04 AM on August 29, 2013 [6 favorites]
bonefish, many thanks for the link to that story about Little Miss Cornshucks.
Most especially for this:
Ahmet Ertegun, the storied chief and co-founder of Atlantic Records, chose to begin What’d I Say, his recent memoir of the label’s rise to dominance in soul, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, by remembering Miss Cornshucks as “the best blues singer” he’s ever heard, “to this day.” She was the first performer he was moved to record, privately, when he was awed by her appearance at a Washington, D.C., nightclub in 1943.
As he recently shared a new listen to “Tenderness” and the 30 other sides Miss Cornshucks recorded (most over 50 years ago, and virtually all unavailable since), Ertegun’s eyes welled up. “That,” he said, surrounded by his memorabilia of Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, “was the reason I got into this business in the first place.”
And now, for our listening pleasure, her 1951 recording: Try a Little Tenderness
posted by Mister Bijou at 3:46 AM on August 29, 2013 [2 favorites]
Most especially for this:
Ahmet Ertegun, the storied chief and co-founder of Atlantic Records, chose to begin What’d I Say, his recent memoir of the label’s rise to dominance in soul, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, by remembering Miss Cornshucks as “the best blues singer” he’s ever heard, “to this day.” She was the first performer he was moved to record, privately, when he was awed by her appearance at a Washington, D.C., nightclub in 1943.
As he recently shared a new listen to “Tenderness” and the 30 other sides Miss Cornshucks recorded (most over 50 years ago, and virtually all unavailable since), Ertegun’s eyes welled up. “That,” he said, surrounded by his memorabilia of Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, “was the reason I got into this business in the first place.”
And now, for our listening pleasure, her 1951 recording: Try a Little Tenderness
posted by Mister Bijou at 3:46 AM on August 29, 2013 [2 favorites]
Yeah - the combination of Miss Cornshucks version - and Sam Cooke's show where Otis Redding's version came from. The Sam Cook recording was not until 1964 so it could well be that he had been listening to Miss Cornshucks too.
posted by rongorongo at 4:14 AM on August 29, 2013
posted by rongorongo at 4:14 AM on August 29, 2013
Soul? You want your tenderness with soul? You ain't heard soul until you've heard the Jack Webb version.
posted by Longtime Listener at 6:27 AM on August 29, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Longtime Listener at 6:27 AM on August 29, 2013 [2 favorites]
"Nobody gets woolly. And nobody's got stress, she's wearing a dress."
posted by Herodios at 8:12 AM on August 29, 2013
posted by Herodios at 8:12 AM on August 29, 2013
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