It was November, 1967, and Otis Redding was about to do what he always did when he wasn’t on the road: Head into the studio at Stax Records, located then, as it is now, at 926 E. McLemore Ave. in Memphis, Tennessee. Redding had been through it all in 1967: High highs and lows that included a vocal cord surgery, but word got around that he was back and ready to record and had a whole pile of songs to work on. And so the Stax house band — Booker T. and the M.G.’s, and the Memphis Horns — began pulling marathon sessions to keep up with Redding, who seemed to live at the studio for a few weeks in November and December 1967, spending the day with the band cutting the full songs, while spending the night writing and sketching out songs in the studio. The sessions would yield more than 20 song...