Posted on 04/15/2015 10:23:23 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Percy Sledge, the R&B and soul singer best known for singing "When a Man Loves a Woman," died of natural causes at 73, today. He was in a hospice facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
"When a Man Loves a Woman" was written by Andrew Wright and Calvin Lewis, although Sledge has long noted his contributions to the song in interviews with the press, believing he should have been given a co-writing credit. All that aside, the real power of the song, which has enabled it find its way into the hearts of fans around the world, has always been Sledge's powerhouse vocals.
Released April 16, 1966, the song, which has Sledge's voice aching in a state of desperation most people who've been head-over-heels in love with someone can relate to, quickly hit #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts. It was recorded at Norala Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, just 20 minutes down the road from Sledge's hometown of Leighton, as Sledge's debut single.
Rolling Stone later listed the song as the 53rd greatest song of all time.
As a child Sledge worked in the fields picking cotton before getting a job as an orderly in a hospital and then ultimately going on to start his music career. When he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, he opened his speech with a memory about his boss in the fields commenting on his vocal abilities.
"10 years old, singing my songs in the fields, picking, chopping cotton. And my bossman tells me one day, he said 'Perc, that voice that you're using now, coming out of your throat, the whole world is going to hear it one day,'" Sledge said.
Nice story....from picking cotton at age 10 to music fame. The greatness of America on display. I hope he got wealthy from his spectacular talent.
Obviously a very homophobic song.
As a guitar player, I also always appreciated the guitar in that song as well. It really added to the emotion of the piece and complimented Sledge’s great voice. Sorry to see him pass.
The one thing that always stood out for me was the end with the horns, they always sounded to me that they were a bit sharp on the notes, turned out I wasn’t the only who noticed:
Trained musicians can tell that the horns on this song are out of tune, and this didn’t escape the ear of Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records. He sent back the original version so this could be fixed, but the fix never made it to the shelves. David Hood, who became the bass player in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, told us: “Wexler thought the horns on the original version were out of tune - and they were - and he wanted them to change the horns. They went back in the studio and changed the horns, got different horn players to play on it. But then the tapes got mixed up and Atlantic put out their original version. So that’s the hit.”
And the whole world did, indeed, hear him.
Hillary said she prefers “When a woman loves a woman.”.
I have read that Lee Atwater played guitar in Percy Sledge's touring band.
Doesn’t exactly sound like a mean, hateful boss to me.
Percy Sledge was from a time when God given talent was the most important asset in becoming a star-today every little POS with an artificially enhanced voice and synthetic background noise is called a star.
Turns out you are correct. Thanks, I didn’t know that bit of info.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11536060/Percy-Sledge-singer-obituary.html
Sometimes there is a song that is best sung by one person.
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