Respect

Recorded in March 1969 at Ter Mar Studios in Chicago for Rotary Connection's fourth album Songs. The group recorded the Otis Redding song with Charles Stepney arranging and producing alongside Marshall Chess, and Ron Malo engineering the session. Released by Cadet Concept in 1969, Respect opened Songs, an album built around radically rearranged covers of contemporary rock, soul, and blues material. Rotary Connection's version reframed a familiar soul standard through Stepney's orchestral psychedelic production and the group's choral vocal sound. The track remains part of Rotary Connection's reputation for transforming outside material into elaborate psychedelic soul. Its place on Songs ties it to Charles Stepney's broader influence as an arranger and producer later rediscovered by soul, hip-hop, and crate-digging audiences.