Issued As A Single In 1968, The Song “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding (1941 - 1967) Was The First Posthumous Release By An American Artist To Ever Top The US Charts.

Otis Redding (1941 – 1967) was the first American artist to have a posthumous number one single. The song “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” (released one month after the plane crash that ended his life) achieved that distinction.

Janis Joplin (1943 – 1970) and Jim Croce (1943 – 1973) would then become the second and the third artist respectively to hit the top of the American charts posthumously. Janis did it with Kris Kristofferson-penned “Me and Bobby McGee” (from the successful “Pearl”, issued in 1971), and Jim with a song he had written about his yet-to-be-born son, “Time In A Bottle”.