10. Otis ReadingPain In Your Heart
This was one of the vinyls I had. Again, if you say who influenced me, who I really took a lot from, and it might not be obvious but it’s true: Elvis and Otis Redding. I used to call myself Suzi Soul in the very beginning of my band days, and I did all of his songs. His songs were all of my big numbers. I learned phrasing and spontaneity from him. I just thought he was terrific. I had the wonderful experience of doing a big radio documentary on him on one of my radio shows on Radio 2, and I got to meet all of his people and everything and it was fantastic. He was a great. When you think of it he had not that wide a range of vocals, but what he did, he nailed it. That’s all you can say. He made the most of everything that he had. I talked to the drummer for a long time and he said he knew what Otis was going to do before he did it. So when you hear those great live recordings he’s always right there with the backbeat, you know. Excellent stuff.
