R & B Ground Breaker Percy Sledge Dies At Age 74

Percy Sledge was a hospital orderly when he cut a song he had written with some guys he knew in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. None of their lives would ever be the same.

Sledge went on to define the Southern Soul sound of the late '60s and early '70s.

Percy, who's biggest hit was 'When A Man Loves A Woman' died yesterday at his home in Baton Rouge, LA. He was 74.

Percy Sledge was from Leighton, AL and he used to sing while working in the cotton fields as a child. Later, as an orderly, he would sing to his patients. He was discovered by producer Rick Hall, who recorded his first single.

In this clip from the movie Muscle Shoals,Sledge and Hall recall their first encounter.

The meeting would be instrumental for Hall and Sledge. Percy went on to international fame following the recording of 'When A Man Loves A Woman', while Hall's Norala (later to become FAME) studios was the breeding ground for what became known as The Muscle Shoals Sound, a unique mix of pop and soul that overtook the charts in the late '60s.

It made number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts. It was listed 54th in the List of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest songs of all time. The sidemen for this recording included Spooner Oldham, organ; Marlin Greene, guitar; Albert "Junior" Lowe, bass and Roger Hawkins, drums. The song is credited to Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, who played bass and keyboards with Sledge. However, the song was in fact written by Percy Sledge himself, but he gave it to Lewis and Wright.

Before the recording session, the song had no title or lyrics. The session proceeded with the expectation that Sledge would produce them for the vocal takes. When it came time to record the vocals, Sledge improvised the lyrics with minimal pre-planning, using the melody as a guide for rhythm and phrasing. The performance was so convincing that others working on the session assumed Sledge had the lyrics written down.

Thursday will mark the 49th anniversary of the release of 'When a Man Loves a Woman' as a single.

His other hits included 'Warm and Tender Love' (Pop #17, R&B #5), 'It Tears Me Up' (Pop #20, R&B #7), and 'Take Time to Know Her' (Pop #11, R&B #6).

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.