While the album and its singles were moderately successful on the music charts, it includes Redding's first top-10 single, ' Mr. Unlike Redding's debut album, Sings Soul Ballads was released both on Atlantic's subsidiary Atco Records and Stax's Volt Records. & the M.G.'s, the horn section Memphis Horns and the pianist Isaac Hayes, who possibly first appeared on this album, although this is disputed, as he was not credited on the liner notes.
The album features a stereo mix made by engineer Tom Dowd, replacing the early mono mix. The recording sessions took place at the Stax studios in Memphis.
Like Redding's debut Pain in My Heart (1964), Soul Ballads features both soul classics and originals written by Redding and other Stax Records recording artists. The album was one of the first issued by Volt Records, a sub-label of Stax Records, and Redding's first on the new label. The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, simply referred to as Soul Ballads or Sings Soul Ballads, is the second studio album by American soul singer-songwriter Otis Redding, released in 1965. The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads
