Percy Sledge -

Percy Sledge (Nov. 25, 1940 — April 14, 2015) was an American soul singer who released ten albums on Atlantic between 1966 and 1971, delivering a romantic evergreen with the R&B-gospel anthem “When a Man Loves a Woman,” one of the biggest hits of the 1960s. His other hits include “Warm and Tender Love,” “It Tears Me Up,” “Take Time to Know Her,” “Love Me Tender,” “Cover Me,” “I’ll Be Your Everything,” and “Sunshine.”

Sledge became a live fixture in South Africa, where numbers from a Swaziland date were interspersed with Kalahari wildlife footage for the 1971 docu-film Soul Africa. In 1974, he released two albums on the Allman‘s Capricorn label.

Background

Percy Tyrone Sledge was born November 25, 1940, in Leighton, Alabama, to Robert Lee and Fanluceille Sledge. He sang at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church and joined the Singing Clouds, a gospel quartet that included cousin Jimmy Hughes. Sledge graduated from Leighton Training School in 1958 and worked farm jobs around Leighton before he became an orderly at Colbert County Hospital in Sheffield.

Sledge fronted the Esquires Combo by the early 1960s while he retained his hospital job. The group played fraternity parties at Florence State College and clubs around northwestern Alabama before it toured the Southeast. Quin Ivy heard Sledge with the Esquires at Sheffield Elks Club in late 1965 and invited him to Norala Sound Studio. Ivy signed Sledge after an audition and asked him to revise “Why Did You Leave Me Baby,” a song Sledge developed with Esquires bassist Calvin Lewis and organist Andrew Wright.

Sledge entered Norala Sound Studio on Feb. 17, 1966, and recorded the revised song as “When a Man Loves a Woman” with musicians from the Muscle Shoals recording circle. Quin Ivy and guitarist Marlin Greene produced the session. Sledge entered the Atlantic roster after Jerry Wexler heard the master and the label bought his contract from Ivy, ahead of the debut album When a Man Loves a Woman.

Discography: