The Red Rocker’s Soulful Detour: A Hard Rock Icon’s Unexpected and Poignant Attempt to Find Balladic Gold in the Shadow of a Legend.
In the sprawling, often theatrical career of Sammy Hagar, a single cover song from 1979 stands as a poignant, almost dramatic anomaly. Before he became the stadium-filling “Red Rocker” or the voice of one of rock’s biggest acts, Hagar paused his relentless pursuit of hard-rock glory to pay a deeply soulful tribute: his version of Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” This track is a fascinating, almost bittersweet moment of vulnerability, capturing an ambitious rocker searching for mainstream acceptance at the end of a tumultuous decade.
Key Information: Sammy Hagar’s cover of “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” originally released by Otis Redding in 1968, was a non-album single released in 1979, the same year as his fourth solo album, Street Machine. While Hagar’s version was not a smash hit on the level of his later work, it did serve as a significant attempt at broader mainstream appeal and was even released as an extended 12″ maxi-single. The accompanying album, Street Machine, which showcased Hagar’s signature hard rock sound, peaked at No. 71 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Hagar’s move to cover a soul classic reflected a palpable pressure in the late 70s rock scene to diversify and find that elusive Top 40 gold.
The story behind this cover is rooted in a pivotal moment of self-doubt and career calculation. By 1979, Sammy Hagar was a respected figure on the hard rock circuit, thanks to his fierce guitar work in Montrose and a string of powerful solo albums. Yet, true, sustained radio stardom remained just out of reach. In a candid reflection that would become part of rock legend, Hagar admitted that his producer, attempting to steer him toward the mainstream, pushed him away from his “heavy-metal guy” strengths and toward a more commercial sound. What better vehicle for commercial crossover than one of the most beloved, emotionally resonant songs in American music history? “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” offered Hagar the chance to showcase the warmth and depth in his voice—a voice often overwhelmed by the screech of a Marshall stack.
The resulting recording is an act of courage, a dramatic departure from the roaring choruses of tracks like “Plain Jane.” It features Hagar’s rock-polished vocals attempting to navigate the simple, mournful elegance of Redding’s masterpiece. For older listeners who remember the raw, tragic weight of the original (recorded just days before Redding’s untimely death), Hagar’s version, while technically proficient, carries an emotional resonance of its own: the sound of a musician at a crossroads, trading the roar of the arena for the quiet contemplation of the bay.
The meaning of Hagar’s cover, therefore, is a meta-commentary on the journey of a working rock star. While Redding’s original song captured the melancholic meaning of a traveler finding temporary solace and reflecting on loss—leaving Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay, with “nothin’ to live for,” save a distant love—Hagar’s interpretation in 1979 seems to reflect his own professional rootlessness. He was searching for a home on the charts that felt as permanent and comforting as the docks of Sausalito were for Redding. It’s the story of a rock warrior briefly laying down his armor to sing a gentle, soulful song, only to realize that true success would ultimately demand he pick up his axe and amplify his own voice, not borrow the wisdom of a ghost. It is a nostalgic bookmark in the history of the Red Rocker, a brief, dramatic detour into the depths of soul before he finally exploded onto the stadium stage.