George HaffendenYesterday the sad news broke that the R&B singer Percy Sledge died at the age of 73. Last year Sledge had gone on to receive treatment for liver cancer, which saw him pull out of a UK soul tour organised by David Gest. Sledge was a master of the soulful ballad, and a master at pulling on the heartstrings of his listeners – recording some of the most emotional, most heart-breaking soul songs recorded in the 1960s and ‘70s. Despite his recent illness he was scheduled to perform all over the world, bringing his fans his unique vocal style and, of course, one of the biggest soul songs ever recorded, ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’. In honour of the great Percy Sledge, we revisit some of his best recordings.
Any Day Now (My Big Beautiful Bird)
Originally recorded by Chuck Jackson, this Burt Bacharach standard was handled with absolute beauty by Sledge. The version is slightly slower than Jackson’s original, which suits Sledge better, allowing him to display once again his vocal prowess and create a devastatingly beautiful song. It’s one of the finest versions of this song, combining both quality song-writing from Bacharach and quality singing from Sledge.
It Tears Me Up
On this song Sledge is at his most heartbroken. It tells a story of a man whose girlfriend has gone off and run off with his best friend; Sledge delivers this story brilliantly, full of raw power and emotion. It has a slight country flavour with the background vocals and the rhythm arrangement, but combined with a soulful and jazzy horn arrangement the song becomes a soul great, one that is frequently overlooked.
You’re Pouring Water On A Drowning Man
Another perfect example of Sledge’s ability to craft heart-wrenching soul ballads. Taken from his debut album on Atlantic Records When A Man Loves A Woman, this song – and nearly every other song Sledge recorded – was overshadowed by the album’s title track, but this one is a delightful piece of 1960s soul. It has that classic Atlantic soul feel: the rhythm arrangement, the brilliant horns, and it even features a small saxophone solo to close out the song.
I Had A Talk With My Woman
From the Warm & Tender album, this song is perhaps one of Sledge’s most beautiful and most poignant recordings. The horns wail out on this one, as do the background vocalists, urging Sledge to lay all his emotion and pain on the track. Sledge delivers on this, producing one of his finest vocals. It is a particular favourite of ours, and one that we feel needs to be rediscovered.
Baby, Help Me
This song represents something different for Sledge by the simple fact that it is an up-tempo, Northern soul style floor stomper. It feels less like the southern-Atlantic soul Sledge typically recorded, and more like an early era Motown recording: the full drum and bass, the horns and the tasty guitar licks. If anything, it proves that Sledge was simply more than just a balladeer – he was in fact a versatile singer, and this song demonstrates it perfectly.
When A Man Loves A Woman
Despite being massively overplayed on radio, on television and on film this song still remains Sledge’s best both commercially and critically. Indeed, it is one of the all time great soul recordings. What is more impressive is that this was Sledge’s first ever recording, and it launched him to stardom and allowed him to carry on touring the world singing it for nearly five decades. Sledge had the idea of the song, and brought it to musicians Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright. With the song complete Sledge made the tragic mistake of giving them full writing credit, when in fact Sledge had the idea for the melody in the first place. Conning himself out of royalties for all these years could have left Sledge bitter, but in fact he was not: he continued to entertain all over the world, bringing his wonderful songbook with him. Sledge may only be remembered for this song, but what a song to be remembered by.