On This Day in 1967, a Tragic Plane Crash Took the Life of This Iconic Musician Weeks Before His First No. 1 Single

The morning of Sunday, December 10, 1967, in Cleveland, Ohio, was a dreary one, full of heavy rain and fog pouring off Lake Erie. The gloomy weather seemed to foreshadow the tragedy that was to come hours after a Beechcraft H18 airplane took off for Madison, Wisconsin, carrying a load of musicians and their valet, Matthew Kelly. A musician dubbed the “King of Soul” bought the airplane two months earlier. He was using it to tour with his band and tourmates, the Bar-Kays. It would be the first and last time he did.

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The owner of the plane was renowned soul singer Otis Redding. Adding to the tragedy was the fact that his star was only just beginning to skyrocket after an impressive closing set on Saturday night of the Monterey Pop Festival in June of that year. Redding and his bandmates were on their way to perform at the Factory nightclub in Madison when their plane crashed into the frigid water of Lake Monona. The only survivor of the crash was Bar-Kays member Ben Cauley. Everyone else onboard, including Redding, his other bandmates, their valet, and the pilot, died.

Reporting by the Eugene Register-Guard the next day revealed that Cauley heard a mechanic say the “plane’s battery was not producing full power” two days before the crash. “A faulty electrical system would have made negotiating an instrument landing difficult because such an approach relies on precise radio signals,” the report read. However, according to the NTSB, a specific cause for the crash was never determined.

Otis Redding Made History Following the Tragic Plane Crash

Otis Redding and his bandmates joined the unlucky ranks of other musicians who had also perished in plane crashes. At the time of their deaths, that unfortunate list included Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Patsy Cline. But that wasn’t the only reason why the tragedy on Lake Monona went down in history. Almost one month to the day after Redding and the rest of the folks onboard his plane (save Ben Cauley) died, Stax Records released the posthumous Redding single, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.

The harrowing story surrounding the track—and its undeniable musical merit—led to the single quickly ascending the charts. The song became Redding’s first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became the first posthumous No. 1 single in music history. When one considers why the song ended the way it did, the laidback soul track becomes even more haunting. In the final verse, Redding famously whistles instead of sings. It might seem like an easy way to fade out of the song. But the whistling was actually supposed to be a placeholder.

Redding was recording “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” in the winter of 1967. But he didn’t have a third verse ready by the time he had to get on the road. He whistled the last verse instead, planning on returning to Stax in Memphis to finish the song. The tragedy on the morning of Sunday, December 10, meant that would never happen, leaving the song as it was the day he left it on December 7.

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