There are a few movie and soundtrack pairings that represent the wild 1980s. None more so than Top Gun (Footloose and Pretty in Pink are also strong contenders.) A whirlwind romance set in the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War, Top Gun featured wild aerial acrobatics, steamy sexual tension, and macho competition. And the soundtrack had the songs to match. Featuring the huge hits "Danger Zone," "Take My Breath Away," as well as "Playing with the Boys," "Mighty Wings," and a handful of classic soul tracks, the Top Gun soundtrack may be the perfect example of the outrageous '80s. This version expands on the original, including a number of songs not featured on the initial release, such as "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" and "Great Balls of Fire" .

Time Life Music’s Singers & Songwriters: Classics features 20 cuts, almost all of which were culled from the singer/songwriter-rich 1970s. Featuring a solid mix of certifiable classics including “Still Crazy After All These Years” (Paul Simon), “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay” (Otis Redding), and “Everybody's Talkin'” (Harry Nilsson) along with artist high watermarks such as “Leader of the Band” (Dan Fogelberg), “Sundown” (Gordon Lightfoot), and “For What It’s Worth” (Buffalo Springfield), Classics dutifully replicates a classic rock radio Sunday playlist.

Another installment in Collectables' The Ultimate Christmas Album series, volume four gathers a mix of well-known and offbeat holiday tunes, including Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas," the Platters' "Winter Wonderland," and Perry Como's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." Brook Benton's "You're All I Want for Christmas," Percy Faith's "Christmas Is," and Otis Redding's "Merry Christmas Baby" are some of the collection's soulful highlights, while Santo & Johnny's "Twistin' Bells" and Stan Freberg's "Christmas Dragnet" add some novelty to the festivities. Though it's a somewhat uneven collection, The Ultimate Christmas Album, Vol. 4: WCBS 101.1 has enough interesting and classic moments to make it worthwhile for anyone looking to go beyond the season's basic music.

American soul singer/songwriter, producer and arranger whose best-known compositions include "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." and "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay", born 9 September 1941 in Dawson, Georgia, USA, and died in a plane crash 10 December 1967 near Madison, Wisconsin, USA…

The second five-album set chronicling Otis Redding's legendary work with Stax Records, this slipcase collection includes 1967's Live in Europe, 1968's Dock of the Bay and In Person at the Whisky A Go Go, 1969's Love Man, and 1970's Tell the Truth, each album presented separately and housed in card wallet style…

The Very Best of Otis Redding wasn't the first Otis Redding compilation but it is the best of the single-disc collections, distilling the high points across his career (up thru the posthumous hits "(Sitting' On) The Dock of the Bay" and the heartbreaking "I've Got Dreams to Remember") in 16 tracks, every one a musical milestone and a soul music high-point of one kind or another. Although aimed at the casual listener and the neophyte fan, there are some astonishing realizations to be had in listening to this disc and looking at the chart placements of the early sides, and realizing just how uniform his musical influence is - "These Arms of Mine" and, especially, "Pain In My Heart," from 1962 and 1963, respectively, sold only a fraction of what his later singles did, yet they've been covered by so many artists since, that they're as familiar as any of the other, bigger hits on this disc…

When the Love Generation (which, truthfully, did no better with that emotion than any other generation) got its first real glimpse of soul giant Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 backed by Booker T. & the MG's, a powerhouse band if there ever were one, they saw love with a capital L, because Redding sang love songs like the world was about to end, wringing the emotion out of them like a soulful, urgent hurricane. He was, simply put, an unstoppable force on-stage, taking all the energy of gospel and upping the ante until it seemed like the very sky itself was about to fly off into space from the very power of it. Redding was soul, and soul in every fiber of his being…

Otis Redding's now historic four-night stand at Hollywood's Whisky a Go Go in April of 1966 has been selectively documented on two previous releases. The first was 1968's In Person at the Whisky a Go Go, which included ten selections chosen from the run. Good to Me: Recorded Live at the Whisky a Go Go, Vol. 2, released in 1982 and expanded for CD release in 1993, was also assembled from various nights. This release is very different. No mere attempt to milk a few more gems from a legendary set of gigs, Otis Redding & His Orchestra Live on the Sunset Strip contains three full sets on two discs from that stand. It's a warts-and-all, rowdy, magical set of performances that reminds the faithful of Redding's singular gifts as a singer and performer, and will open the ears of the uninitiated. A new revelation here is just how much Redding's own band played a role…

Otis Redding's talent began to surge, across songs and their stylesand absorbing them , with the recording of The Soul Album. In contrast to The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, which was an advance over its predecessor but still a body of 12 songs of varying styles and textures, rising to peaks and never falling before an intense, soulful mid-range, The Soul Album shows him moving from strength to strength in a string of high-energy, sweaty soul performances, interspersing his own songs with work by Sam Cooke ("Chain Gang"), Roy Head ("Treat Her Right"), Eddie Floyd ("Everybody Makes A Mistake"), and Smokey Robinson ("It's Growing") and recasting them in his own style, so that they're not "covers" so much as reinterpretations…