by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Percy Sledge will forever be associated with When a Man Loves a Woman, a pleading, soulful ballad he sang with wrenching, convincing anguish and passion. Sledge sang all of his songs that way, delivering them in a powerful rush where he quickly changed from soulful belting to quavering, tearful pleas. It was a voice that made him one of the key figures of deep Southern soul during the late 60s. Sledge recorded at Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama, where he frequently sang songs written by Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn. Not only did he sing deep soul, but Sledge was among the pioneers of country-soul, singing songs by Charlie Rich and Kris Kristofferson in a gritty, passionate style. During the 70s, his commercial success quickly faded away, but Sledge continued to tour and record into the 90s.
While he worked as a hospital nurse in the early 60s, Sledge began his professional music career as a member of the Southern soul vocal group the Esquires Combo. On the advice of local disc jockey Quin Ivy, he went solo in 1966. Ivy fancied himself a record producer and he agreed to help shape Sledges song When a Man Loves a Woman into a full-fledged single, hiring Spooner Oldham to play a distinctive, legato organ phrase. Ivy released the single independently and quickly licensed it to Atlantic Records, who quickly bought out Sledges contract. When a Man Loves a Woman became a huge hit in the summer of 1966, topping both the pop and R&B charts. It was quickly followed that year by two Top Ten R&B hits, Warm and Tender Love and It Tears Me Up, which were both in the vein of his first hit. Although few of his subsequent singles were hits — only Take Time to Know Her reached the R&B Top Ten in 1968 — many of the songs, which were often written by Dan Penn and/or Oldham, were acknowledged as classics among soul aficionados.
Despite his strong reputation among deep soul fans, Sledges sales had declined considerably by the early 70s, and he headed out on the club circuit in America and England. In 1974, he left Atlantic for Capricorn Records, where he surprisingly returned to the R&B Top 20 with Ill Be Your Everything. Instead of re-igniting his career, the single was a last gasp, as far as chart success was concerned. Over the next two decades he continued to tour, and in the late 80s, When a Man Loves a Woman experienced a resurgence in popularity, due to its inclusion in movie soundtracks and in television commercials. Following its appearance in a 1987 Levi commercial in the U.K., the single was re-released and climbed to number two. Two years later, he won the Rhythm and Blues Foundations Career Achievement Award. Sledge was able to turn this revived popularity into a successful career by touring constantly, playing over 100 shows a year into the 90s. In 1994, he released Blue Night, his first collection of new material in over a decade, to uniformly positive reviews.