Glory Of Love

Otis Redding and "Glory Of Love" — Soul's Greatest Voice Honors a Doo-Wop Standard

When Otis Redding recorded "Glory Of Love" in 1967, he was at the height of his creative powers and at the center of a musical moment that was reshaping American popular culture. The song he chose to record was not new: "Glory Of Love" had been written by Billy Hill and recorded originally in the 1930s, and in its most relevant recent incarnation had been a signature number for the Five Keys, the doo-wop vocal group whose 1951 recording had kept the song in circulation within the rhythm and blues tradition. Otis Redding's decision to revisit this older material was characteristic of his approach to the repertoire, which combined fierce original composition with a genuine reverence for the song tradition he had inherited.

The Five Keys' recording of "Glory Of Love" had been a foundational document of the early doo-wop era, showcasing the close harmony vocal work and gentle rhythmic feel that characterized the genre in its most refined forms. The song's theme of enduring love expressed through a covenant of mutual support and forbearance was ideally suited to the doo-wop aesthetic, which favored emotional sincerity and melodic accessibility over instrumental complexity. By the time Redding turned his attention to the song in 1967, it carried the accumulated weight of several decades of popular performance.

Redding's version stripped away the doo-wop group vocal aesthetic and rebuilt the song around his singular voice, supported by the Stax house band that had become his permanent musical home. The Memphis Horns, Booker T. and the MG's, and the rhythm section that constituted the Stax Records studio ensemble gave the recording a distinctive soul feel that was simultaneously true to the spirit of the original and thoroughly of its own moment. This transformation of older material through contemporary soul production and arrangement was precisely the kind of creative work that distinguished Redding from his peers.

The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 29, 1967, at number 75. It climbed to a peak position of number 60, which it held for two consecutive weeks on August 5 and August 12 before beginning to fall. The four-week chart run was brief by the standards of substantial hits, but this modest commercial performance should not obscure the recording's artistic significance or its importance within Redding's catalog.

The year 1967 was among the most significant in Redding's career. He was preparing material that would eventually be released posthumously, including "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," the recording that would become his biggest commercial success after his death in December of that year. His appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 introduced him to a vast new audience of predominantly white rock fans who had previously had limited exposure to his work, and the critical response to his performance was uniformly rapturous. Against this backdrop, the summer release of "Glory Of Love" represented one component of a sustained creative output that was remarkable in its range and quality.

The Stax/Volt approach to recording that shaped Redding's work was built on the interaction between his volcanic emotional expressiveness and the disciplined, groove-oriented playing of musicians who understood intuitively how to frame and support a voice of his power. On "Glory Of Love," this interaction produced a recording that honored the song's heritage while giving it a new emotional intensity. Redding's performance of the lyric, with its themes of giving and receiving, protecting and being protected, took on a weight of personal conviction that the doo-wop original, however lovely, had not quite achieved.

The decision to record a song associated primarily with the doo-wop era also reflected Redding's genuine engagement with the history of African American popular music. He was not simply mining a back catalog for commercial material but expressing a continuity of feeling across the decades that separated the early 1950s Five Keys recording from his own 1967 interpretation. This sense of tradition and inheritance was central to the soul movement's self-understanding, which positioned itself as the latest expression of a long and vital creative lineage.

Steve Cropper, the Stax guitarist and producer whose collaborations with Redding included some of the most celebrated recordings in soul history, was closely involved in shaping the recording's feel. The production choices on "Glory Of Love" reflect the Stax aesthetic at its most controlled and purposeful, with every element serving the emotional logic of the performance rather than calling attention to itself independently. That discipline, combined with Redding's overwhelming vocal authority, produced a recording that stands as a significant if somewhat overlooked entry in one of popular music's most important catalogs.