Percy Sledge, singer of "When a Man Loves a Woman", has died
Soul singer Percy Sledge, best known for his 1966 hit "When a Man Loves a Woman", has died from liver cancer in Louisiana at his home in Baton Rouge, on Tuesday morning. He was 74 years old.
Sledge's debut single, "When a Man Loves a Woman", went to number one in 1966, launching him to fame. It reached the top 10 twice in the UK and topped the US Billboard chart for two weeks in 1966, when it also got to number four in the UK chart.
During an interview for the the 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals, he recalled his first recording of it: "When I came into the studio, I was shaking like a leaf. I was scared... it was the same melody that I sang when I was out in the fields. I just wailed out in the woods and let the echo come back to me".
He signed away the rights of the song to Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, because as he said he didn't know any better.
"I had the melody in my mind, so I gave that song to them", he said, adding that they then created the lyrics. Sledge did not contest the agreement, saying: "I felt like if God fixed it in my mouth to give it to them. I won't change anything about it. I'm satisfied with what I wrote but I cut my kids out of so much because I gave it to someone else - I just wasn't thinking".
The song endured over the years as it was featured in movies like The Big Chilland Platoon, and covered by artists such as Art Garfunkel, Bette Midler and Michael Bolton, whose 1991 version was a huge hit. Sledge also sang hit singles such as "Take the Time to Know Her" and "Warm and Tender Love". In 2005 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.