The end of this song contains perhaps the most famous whistling in music history. To learn more about the museum and the Stax legacy, check out Stax Today. In 2001, construction started on a soul music museum where the studios once stood, and it opened in 2003. The death of Redding was a big blow to the label, and while it certainly had an impact on their demise in the ’70s, there were other factors as well, including financial mismanagement and a change in musical tastes. Redding was the star recording artist for Stax Records, a Memphis label that made classic soul music. Redding liked the outdoors, so he chose the boathouse. Graham gave Redding a choice: he could stay at a hotel, or at a boathouse in nearby Sausalito. Redding played three shows there, December 20-22, 1966. Redding ended up sitting on a dock on the San Francisco Bay thanks to Bill Graham, who ran the Fillmore West Auditorium. ‘Dock Of The Bay’ was exactly that: ‘I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay’ was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform.” Pitiful,’ ‘Sad Song Fa-Fa,’ they were about Otis’ life. He didn’t usually write about himself, but I did. If you listen to the songs I wrote with Otis, most of the lyrics are about him. That’s about all he had: ‘I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again.’ I took that and finished the lyrics. He had been at San Francisco playing The Fillmore, and he was staying at a boathouse (in Sausalito, across the bay from San Francisco), which is where he got the idea of the ship coming in. Anytime he came in to record he always had 10 or 15 different intros or titles, or whatever. Steve Cropper: “Otis was one of those kind of guys who had 100 ideas. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #3 in New Zealand in 1968. The music licensing company BMI named this as the sixth-most performed song of the 20th century, with around 6 million performances. Stewart relented when he heard the finished master recording put together by Cropper after Redding’s death. Redding and Cropper both insisted that it would be his first #1 single. Stax Records chief Jim Stewart did not want the song released because it was unlike his other music. It was by far his biggest hit and was also the first-ever posthumous #1 single in the US. Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967, a month before this song was released (January 8, 1968) and three days after he recorded it. Cropper produced the album when Redding died, including this track with various songs Redding had recorded the last few years. Stax guitarist Steve Cropper wrote this with Redding.