The Otis Redding Story (1968–1970)
Contributed by Garrison Martin on Dec 2nd, 2018. Artwork published in
circa 1968
.
Otis Redding died in 1967, at 26 years of age. A series of 26 single records was released in France, containing (hit) songs of the soul giant. The first volume was released shortly after Redding’s untimely death [see comments], volume 26 was released in 1970.
Most of the covers follow the same design, with “The Otis Redding Story” set in punched Baby Teeth with a new S, the volume numbered in Cooper Black, song titles set in all caps Futura; and a back cover typeset in Antique Olive, Akzidenz-Grotesk and Chambord. The Stax logo is based on Binder Style.
A visual overview of 19 of the 26 issues of the series, from the collection of Horst Adomeit.
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3 Comments on “The Otis Redding Story (1968–1970)”
Photo-Lettering offered 8 variations of Baby Teeth, including a “Dotted” style with dot-shaped counters. This is different, though: The dots are apparently custom additions made for the series logo.
Atco Records have used the same lettering for at least another four Otis Redding record covers: “The Dock Of The Bay” (1968); “The Otis Redding Story” (1968); The Otis Redding Story Vol 2” (1969); “The Immortal Otis Redding” (1968);
Thanks for posting these extra images, Matthijs! The last one is particularly interesting. The Immortal Otis Redding is different in that it shows the original Baby Teeth, in regard to letterforms and counters. I believe this cover designed by Loring Eutemey was the inspiration for the use of (self-made) Baby Teeth on the French single sleeves. More about it in a separate post.
I’m aware that some sources claim that the first volumes of The Otis Redding Story were released in 1967, and hence predate The Immortal Otis Redding. Discogs dates have to be taken with a grain of salt, though. I believe the 1967 date is incorrect: Redding died on December 10, 1967, and it seems implausible that Stax/Atco France launched their memorial series in the same year. I’ve changed the date of this post to “ca. 1968”.
I’ve also replaced the “modified typeface” tag with “lettering derived from typeface”—this is not a direct use of Baby Teeth. In addition to the S, other letterforms incl. G, N, R, Y are off, too.