Percy Sledge: his five best songs

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/14/percy-sledge-five-best-songs

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When A Man Loves A Woman (1966)

Percy Sledge’s first and best-known song - a No 1 in the US and Canada, and top 5 in the UK in two decades - might have proved an albatross for a lesser talent. But it was to his credit – and testament to the strength of his debut – that he managed to parlay a successful career beyond that single and not get dwarfed by the enormous shadow that it cast.

The first few moments are all about the organ, the heartbeat bass line and the churchy, gospel feel of the chords. As intros go, it’s as striking as anything in 60s pop – so striking, in fact, that Procol Harum were inspired by it in the creation of their own signature anthem, A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Sledge acknowledged the impact of his song on the progress of prog rock when he covered A Whiter Shade himself. The only wonder was that it didn’t cause a Blurred Lines/Marvin Gaye-style legal meltdown at the time.

Warm and Tender Love (1966)

Sledge’s second single - and second-biggest hit, reaching No 17 in the US - also pleaded, “Take me to church”. But it was a prime slice of secular yearning as much as it was steeped in the gospel, a quintessential example of original R&B, all fervour and grit, the antithesis of the shiny hi-tech dance music made under that soubriquet today. The singer was only 24 at the time of this performance but he seemed much older, and even in this song of devotion there is a subtextual sadness that suggests he suspects his ardour will not be reciprocated. Possibly why here, and on many of his songs, Sledge sounds on the verge of tears.

It Tears Me Up (1966)

On his third hit (No 20 in the US) he does cry, or at least he admits that he will in the lyrics, because he’s just seen his girl with his back-stabbing best friend. Co-written by Dan Penn (whose songs include The Dark End of the Street and The Letter), it is tailor-made for Sledge, bleeding dolour from every vocal sob, doomed never to have his love requited in this “cold, cold world” where he feels “like I’m dyin’”. Penn may not have known, but Sledge’s girlfriend ditched him in real life to become a model after he was laid off from a construction job in late 1965, ahead of his recording career, but even if he had no idea, his song perfectly suited Sledge, the King of Pain.

Out of Left Field (1967)

His fifth single (which just scraped the American top 50) was another heartfelt ballad, this one featuring on the soundtrack to Tom Cruise movie The Color of Money – Sledge had an “afterlife” in the 80s thanks to Levi jeans, who used When a Man Loves a Woman in an ad campaign. This one had the hymnal quality of most of his best work, albeit with a hint of light as he meets a woman “out of nowhere”, and this time the relationship doesn’t seem illusory, destined to fail or fated to not happen at all.

Take Time to Know Her (1968)

It is a suitable case for forensic scrutiny: which occurs more frequently in the pop canon, male or female betrayal? Certainly in Sledge’s oeuvre, it is usually the woman doing the man wrong. This one replicates the descending chord sequence of When a Man and revisits the tragically faithless scenario of It Tears Me Up. Here, the woman of his dreams becomes his wife only to find her with another man after the wedding, and all because he didn’t heed his mother’s warning: “she was bad”. Sledge sang the blues in his songs, and in doing so turned them into classics of southern soul. Recorded at the burgeoning Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, released on Atlantic records, they remain piquant peaks of unbridled passion and searing sorrow.