Redding's singing is quite stunning, with heart-rending deliveries that make you believe that he means what he says. And, the back up from Booker T, Steve Cropper and the Stax 'house band' is consistently creative and incisive. Many of the arrangements used here became standard reference points for the flood of 'soul' records that were to follow. But, while Sam Cooke and Ray Charles fans may argue, this was where it all came together for the first time in a glorious, unified whole.