He went from picking cotton in the South to singing and recorded perhaps one of the most known soul ballads in history. Percy Sledge, 74, singer of “When a Man Loves a Woman” died this week after a long battle with liver cancer.
Sledge was born in Leighton, Alabama, on Nov. 25, 1940, and spent his early life as a field hand and a hospital orderly. He toured throughout the ’60s with a group called “The Esquires” until his big hit in 1966. “When a Man Loves a Woman” reached No. 1 in the United States and Britain as well as going onto to become a hit internationally. According to Sledge, the soulful ballad, which can be heard in dozens of movie soundtracks, was inspired over the end of a relationship. His girlfriend left him after he lost his job as a construction worker in 1965. She went on to pursue a career in modeling, but like all good songwriters, he turned his pain to music. Sledge spent a good deal of his career in later years performing steadily in Africa and Europe where his music and style of singing was still a hit with crowds. His sound was also an influence on Otis Redding and the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, music scene that collaborated with Sledge on many pieces, including the Redding hit “Try a Little Tenderness.” Surprisingly, his career took off again in 1991 when Michael Bolton recorded “When a man Loves a Woman” and it went to number 1 on the charts again almost exactly as it did 25 years earlier. Sledge married twice and fathered 12 children; he died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on April, 14 2015.
