My Greatest 100 (or so) Albums...

Dictionary of Soul (Volt, 1966) Otis Redding. Okay, if you're gonna put MY-MY-MY across the front of your record it better be damn good. Dictionary of Soul is even better than that. Released in the fall of `66, this was the 5th and last studio album Otis completed before his tragic death. It's as good as anything anyone has ever done, it is not only the greatest soul album of the `60's, but it is also the key to what Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen would eventually do when they put together their Booker T and the MG's/Bar Kays style backing bands. Here, one of the greatest singers of all time, basically sings the dictionary and proves it's full of soul. Check out all of the styles he adatpted:

"Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" (Steve Cropper, Otis Redding) – 2:40
"I'm Sick Y'all" - (Cropper, David Porter, Redding) – 2:53
"Tennessee Waltz" (Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart) – 2:53
"Sweet Lorene" (Isaac Hayes, Alvertis Isbell, Redding) – 2:26
"Try a Little Tenderness" (Jimmy Campbell, Reginald Connelly, Harry Woods) – 3:46
"Day Tripper" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 2:32
"My Lover's Prayer" (Otis Redding) – 3:05
"She Put the Hurt on Me" (Otis Redding) – 2:34
"Ton of Joy" (Otis Redding) – 2:50
"You're Still My Baby" (Chuck Willis) – 3:47
"Hawg for You" (Otis Redding) – 3:24
"Love Have Mercy" (Hayes, Porter) – 2:28

If you don't have this dictionary, you desperately need it to know what anyone who's worth talking to is talking about. See if they have it at Amazon.