REDDING: IS HE NEXT IN MOVIE LINE?

Five points in this morning’s quiz if you can spot a trend here:

--”The Buddy Holly Story” in 1978 was a film about a pop star who died in a plane crash.

--”Sweet Dreams” in 1985 was a film about a pop star (Patsy Cline) who died in a plane crash.

--”La Bamba,” which opened in theaters Friday, is a film about a pop star (Ritchie Valens) who died in a plane crash (the same one that killed Buddy Holly).

Now, you can earn five bonus points if you can guess whose story is next in line.

There are plenty of candidates:

--Jim Reeves, the Country Music Hall of Fame member who died in a 1964 crash.

--Jim Croce, the singer-songwriter who was killed in a 1973 crash.

--Rick Nelson, the Rock Hall of Fame member who died in a 1985 crash.

But the singer whose life is most likely to make it first to the movie screen is Otis Redding, who was killed Dec. 10, 1967, when his small private plane crashed just three minutes from Madison, Wis., where he was scheduled to perform that night. Atlantic Records has just released a four-record overview of Redding’s career.

Phil Walden, who managed Redding and headed the Capricorn Records empire that was home in the ‘70s for the Allman Brothers Band, said the film project--after several false starts--is finally “moving along well.”

Ironically, one reason Redding’s story hasn’t made it to the screen earlier is the fact that he died in a plane crash.

“We have already seen the stories about how the plane crash killed a guy on the way up,” said Dale Pollock, vice president in charge of production for A&M; Films, which is making the Redding film. “So the (challenge) was how do you (make the Redding film) without ending up with what is another cliche?”

Pollock, who joined A&M; last year, said the company, whose publishing wing owns the rights to Redding’s songs, has rejected three potential scripts since 1981, when it began exploring the possibility of a film about the soul singer.

“Everyone knew there was a really interesting story here. . . . A black performer who was obsessed with cracking the white charts . . . a guy who became a huge success in Europe and then was able through the Monterey Pop Festival to become a huge hit in his own country.”

Pollock said, however, that he is now satisfied with an approach to the story and expects to hire the screenwriter shortly, with production scheduled to begin early next year.

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Redding is widely regarded as the greatest of the male soul singers of the ‘60s--the man who, along with Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, virtually defined soul singing for a generation of rock fans with his highly emotional, testifying style, which incorporated equal parts gospel and R&B; traditions.

However, even many soul music fans know Redding only by his biggest hits, which include “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Try a Little Tenderness” and “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” One reason is that most of his early albums have been out of print for years.

That’s why “The Otis Redding Story,” the new Atlantic set, is especially welcome. The 60-song collection provides a splendid overview of Redding, from his best-known hits to some interesting versions of others’ hits (Lennon-McCartney’s “Day Tripper,” Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang”) to two previously unreleased tracks (one, “Stay in School,” was recorded as part of a public service LP put together by Stax Records for radio stations).

Born in Dawson, Ga., in 1941, Redding was raised in Macon, Ga., where his father was a part-time preacher. Young Redding dropped out of school in the 10th grade and took on various odd jobs around town to help support his family. He picked up $6 a week playing drums on a Sunday-morning gospel radio show on a local radio station.

He was still in his teens when he met Walden. Here were two young Southerners (one black, one white) with dreams about the future: Redding wanted to be a singer; Walden wanted to be a manager and/or agent.

“I am delighted,” Walden said by phone from his Nashville office this week, when asked about the boxed set. “I think there is considerable new interest in Otis and his music. . . . A lot of contemporary rock artists of today are citing him as a major influence . . . and I am just thrilled that the music continues to live the way it does.”

Walden was a sophomore at Mercer College in Macon when he first heard Redding.

“And first ‘heard’ is right,” Walden said. “I heard Otis before I saw him. There was a local talent show broadcast live on Saturday mornings from the black theater. I had put together a (black) group called the Heartbreakers and they’d enter the contest every week.

“This was back in the days of segregation and therefore I had to stay out in my car and listen to the show on the radio, but each week this guy called Rockhouse Redding won the contest and my group came in second. Being an economics major, I quickly added up things and the Heartbreakers became history and I began managing Otis.”

Walden, who has moved his operation to Nashville, where he is trying to re-establish Capricorn Records after years of inactivity, said he has already supplied A&M; Films with 200 pages of notes about his years with Redding and expects to meet soon with the screenwriter on the project.

“I played the whole (Atlantic) set a week or so ago, and it was a real moving experience for me because I hadn’t heard a lot of the songs in some time,” Walden said. “Each song brought back some memory of what we were doing at the time, but I think ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ has a special place (with me).

“It was a song at a time in Otis’ career that he had reached a certain peak within black music and we were trying to broaden his audience. So we were listening to Sam Cooke’s Copa album and ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ was one song in this medley.

“I thought that song would have strong crossover aspects into the so-called pop market, so Otis recorded it, and the reason he only uses a smattering of the words (from the original song) is those are the only ones he knew . . . the ones Cooke had used in his medley.”

Was Walden worried that Redding’s attempt to break into the pop nightclub market would sacrifice his artistry?

“No, I wasn’t worried about that at all,” he said. “It would have been hard to make Otis Redding ‘white.’ If anything still stands in his music, I think it is the uniqueness of him . . . so black . . . so rural, so Southern . . . .”

LIVE ACTION: Whitney Houston will be at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Sept. 26 and at the Forum on Oct. 2. Tickets for both shows go on sale Sunday. . . . Tickets go on sale Monday for Heart’s Sept. 4 stop at Irvine Meadows. . . . A fourth Anita Baker show has been added (Sept. 6) at the Greek Theatre. . . . Tickets go on sale Sunday for three Universal Amphitheatre attractions: Peter, Paul & Mary, Sept. 18 and 19; George Benson, Sept. 25-27, and Kenny G, Nov. 6 and 7. . . . George Winston will be at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Aug. 7 and 8. . . . Police guitarist Andy Summers will be at the Palace on Aug. 8, while Waylon Jennings headlines the Coach House on Aug. 10. . . . Third World will be at the Palace on Sept. 10 and at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim on Sept. 12.