Otis Redding died in a plane crash just three days after recording "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay". Since he had not yet finished the lyrics, he ended up whistling the ending, and this whistling was in the official version. Steve Cropper completed the songwriting after his death.
Released as a single in January 1968, it was Otis' first and only single to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent four weeks at the top. The song won two posthumous Grammys and became one of the greatest classics in soul music.