Songfacts®:

• Stax records producer and guitarist Steve Cropper told Rolling Stone magazine: "'I Can't Turn You Loose' was just a riff I'd used on a few songs with the MG's. Otis worked it up with the horns in about 10 minutes as the last thing we did one night in the studio. Just a riff and one verse that he sings over and over. That's all it is. With Otis, it was all about feeling and expression. Most of his songs had just two or three chord changes, so there wasn't a lot of music there. The dynamics, the energy, the way we attacked it - that's hard to teach. So many things now are computer-generated. They start at one level and they stop at the same level, so there isn't much dynamic, even if there are a lot of different sounds." >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France
• This song about refusing to let a loved one go was written by Redding and Cropper, and recorded by some heavy-hitters in the world of Soul: Aretha Franklin, Etta James, The Chambers Brothers and Marvin Gaye have all covered it.
• This was later used by The Blues Brothers as their entrance theme music. Steve Cropper was part of the Blues Brothers band.