Otis Redding – Cigarettes And Coffee

Otis could sing soul, rock, R&B, and anything he wanted. The sound of his voice alternating between smooth and rough is breath taking.

The music isn’t bad either. Otis was backed by the great Stax house band Booker T and the MG’s.   Eddie Thomas, Jay Walker and Jerry Butler, a popular singer who had hits with “Make It Easy on Yourself” and “Are You Happy,” wrote this song but didn’t record it.

The song was on The Soul Album released in 1966. The song wasn’t released as a single but it’s one of my favorites by Otis. The album peaked at #54 in the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in the R&B Charts, and #22 in the UK.

Steve Cropper…guitarist for Booker T and The MG’s: The first time I heard him sing, he did “These Arms of Mine,” and the thing about Otis is, we had 17 hits in a row – R&B hits. Some of them went to #1, some of them didn’t, but they still generated income – that was good enough for us to do another record.

So, the hidden gem in his catalog, I’d have to really think about that. There’s so many, but there are two songs he did that I really loved. One was “A Change Is Gonna Come” and the other one is “Cigarettes and Coffee.” His version of “Shake” that we did – the Sam Cooke song – wow.

Otis sessions were a lot of fun. He was the only artist I remember recording at Stax that the band could not wait for him to come back. And they never did that with anybody – it was work, it was a job, and that’s what they did. We all had fun making music – we had a good time – but they could not wait for Otis to come back to record because we had so much fun.

Cigarettes And Coffee

It’s early in the morning
About a quarter till three
I’m sittin’ here talkin’ with my baby
Over cigarettes and coffee, now
And to tell you that
Darling I’ve been so satisfied
Honey since I met you
Baby since I met you, ooh

All the places that I’ve been around
And all the good looking girls I’ve met
They just don’t seem to fit in
Knowing this particularly sad, yeah

But it seemed so natural, darling
That you and I are here
Just talking over cigarettes and drinking coffee, ooh now

And whole my heart cries out
Love at last I’ve found you, ooh now
And honey won’t you let me
Just be my whole life around you
And while I complete, I complete my whole life would be, yeah
If you would take things under consideration
And walk down this hour with me
And I would love it, yeah

People I say it’s so early in the morning
Oh, it’s a quarter till three
We’re sittin’ here talkin’
Over cigarettes and drinking coffee, now, lord
And I’ll like to show you, well
I’ve known nothing but good old joy
Since I met you, darling
Honey since I’ve met you, baby yeah

I would love to have another drink of coffee, now
And please, darling, help me smoke this one more cigarette, now
I don’t want no cream and sugar
Cause I’ve got you, now darling
But just let me enjoy
Help me to enjoy
This good time that we’ll have, baby
It’s so early, so early in the morning
So early, so early in the morning
And I’ve got you
And you’ve got me
And we’ll have each other
And we don’t, we don’t want nothing but joy, y’all
Nothing but joy

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

23 thoughts on “Otis Redding – Cigarettes And Coffee”

      1. my mom chain-smoked for decades – eventually she quit and became one of those loud anti-smoking advocates. But looking back it now seems so obvious why I had terrible asthma as a kid and she developed it by middle age… and why it more or less cleared up for me, 80-90% of the time, after I moved out. But it was the norm back then.

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  4. There is a movie called “The Commitments” that focuses on Otis. A band of Irish teens form a soul band based on their singers ability to sing like Redding. Check it out, it’s great. I never got to see him live back in the day.

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    1. Ok Phil…I’ll do that…I’m writing that down. I only have one movie in line right now to watch so that will be the second…thanks Phil!

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  5. I’ve never heard a bad word about Otis Redding. Every musician that worked with him (or at least the ones I’ve read about) said not only was he the best singer /musician they ever worked with, but that he was the best person they ever worked with.

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  6. Like Hans said, a great voice, who judging from”Dock of the Bay” was just turning the corner to real, mainstream acceptance and greatness. Another one of those big music “gone too soons”

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    1. Sam Cooke doesn’t get much at all…Otis I hear of …but yea he rules. That voice…he could sing soul or rock…and write.

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