Complete and Unbelievable

Released in October 1966 on Stax, Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul arrived after Otis Blue and a run of acclaimed West Coast club dates, including his shows at the Whisky a Go Go, that had begun pulling Redding toward a wider, more racially mixed crossover audience^[1].

The record splits cleanly into two halves. Side one leans on covers and standards, including a reading of the country classic "Tennessee Waltz" and a soul rework of the Beatles' "Day Tripper", while side two is given over almost entirely to Redding's own compositions, giving the album a deliberate structure that moves from interpretation toward original voice^[1]. Its second single, a slow-building rework of the 1932 standard "Try a Little Tenderness", arranged with Stax producer Isaac Hayes, became Redding's biggest hit to date and eventually his signature song^[1].

The album peaked at number 73 on the Billboard 200 and number 5 on the R&B albums chart. AllMusic awarded it five stars, noting that it found Redding "continuing to expand the boundaries of his style," and Rolling Stone later placed it at number 254 on its 2012 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time^[1]. It arrived roughly a year before Redding's breakout Monterey Pop Festival set and his death in December 1967, positioning it as one of the key records of his final creative period^[2].