 The song was written by guitarist Steve Cropper and singer Otis Redding, his first collaboration with Cropper, as a response to a statement made by radio disc jockey Moohah Williams, when he nicknamed Redding as "Mr. Pitiful", because of sounding pitiful when singing ballads.Cropper heard this and had the idea to write a song with that name when taking a shower.Cropper then asked Redding in a car how he felt about this idea, and soon after they recorded the song in about 10 minutes.