Otis Redding sets the mark for the longest span between entries on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and halts the second-longest hiatus from the Billboard Hot 100, as Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Otis,” on which the late soul legend receives featured billing, storms the former chart at No. 15 and the latter list at No. 47.
With the bow of “Otis” on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Otis Redding returns to the chart for the first time since the week of Sept. 13, 1969, when his 28th and previous most recent entry, “Free Me,” logged its last week after peaking at No. 30 (and when the chart was named “Best Selling Soul Singles”).
Ending a break of 41 years, 10 months and three weeks, Redding, who was killed in a plane crash (at only 26 years of age) Dec. 10, 1967.
“Otis,” which samples Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness,” which reached No. 4 on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and No. 25 on the Hot 100 in 1967, launches as the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart’s second-highest debut of the 2000s. Only Usher’s “Love in This Club Part II,” featuring Beyonce and Lil Wayne, began at a loftier rank in that span, having opened at No. 14 the week of May 14, 2008.
– Billboard
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