Percy Sledge - Take Time To Know Her (1968)

Percy Sledge was an American soul singer.

1967 continued for Percy Sledge with "Cover Me", a fantastic new song written by Eddie Hinton and Marlin Greene. Despite its strength, it only charted at #39 R&B and #44 pop. However his next single proved to be one of his biggest hits - "Take Time To Know Her", a country-soul ballad from the pen of young Nashville songwriter Steve Davis, reached #6 R&B and #11 pop in 1968. His fourth album followed, featuring both songs and a great selection of others, including "Feed The Flame" by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, "Spooky" by The Classics IV, and "Sudden Stop" by Bobby Russell (which also saw release as a single, getting to #41 R&B and #63 pop). It also found room for two hits from the year before, "Baby Help Me" and the superb "Out Of Left Field". 

The result was a very strong album (perhaps his best), but it turned out to be his last in quite a while. Though he continued releasing singles on Atlantic Records over the next few years, none of them would chart particularly well, and Atlantic released no new albums bar a greatest hits package.

The Percy Sledge Way (1967) <|> I'll Be Your Everything (1974)
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Percy Sledge - The Percy Sledge Way (1967)

Percy Sledge was an American soul singer. 

The massive success of Percy Sledge's #1 hit "When A Man Loves A Woman" in 1966 had thrown Quin Ivy's little Norala studio into the big league. Sledge's records were distributed by the Atlantic label, and after two successful follow-up hits later the same year, Atlantic was eager for more. Ivy took every chance he could to record Sledge at Norala when his busy touring schedule allowed. In early 1967 two singles recorded the previous December were released. The first, Bobby Womack's "Baby Help Me", only made it to #44 on the R&B chart. The second, the superb country-soul ballad "Out Of Left Field", by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, fared better and made it to #25. However neither songs would be featured on a Percy Sledge album until 1968. The fact that the ballad was more successful than the upbeat number was indicative of where Sledge's strengths lied.

His third album was recorded and released later in 1967, and focused on Sledge's talents with ballads. It was made up entirely of cover songs, including "The Dark End Of The Street", "I've Been Loving You Too Long", "Tell It Like It Is", "You Send Me" and "Drown In My Own Tears". All well-known R&B ballads, done The Percy Sledge Way. An album of cover songs was perhaps not the best idea commercially speaking (surely if it had featured "Out Of Left Field" it would have been more successful), but nevertheless it made for an excellent record.

Warm & Tender Soul (1966) <|> Take Time To Know Her (1968)
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Percy Sledge - Warm & Tender Soul (1966)

Percy Sledge was an American soul singer.

1966 had seen Percy Sledge's career launched by his debut single "When A Man Loves A Woman", a #1 cross-over hit which also helped break the Southern Soul sound to a much wider national audience, and alerted the music business to the sounds coming out of Muscle Shoals. Still recording at Quin Ivy's Norala studio, Sledge's next single was "Warm And Tender Love" (originally recorded and released by Joe Haywood in 1964), which charted at #5 R&B and #17 Pop. 

A second album was quickly put together to capitalize on its success, mostly consisting of cover songs. These included Don Covay's "I'm Hanging Up My Heart for You" (originally a hit for Solomon Burke), Smokey Robinson's "You've Really Got A Hold On Me", Roosevelt Jamison's "That's How Strong My Love Is", Jerry Butler's "I Stand Accused", Jerry Goffin and Carole King's "So Much Love", and even Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender". It also featured an arrangement of "Try A Little Tenderness", quite different to the famous Otis Redding version (they were both recorded at about the same time, so Redding's version was probably not yet known at Norala).

Despite its reliance on covers, the album was strong, some excellent country-soul done the Percy Sledge way. The one standout original song was "It Tears Me Up", written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, a moody country-soul classic. It became Sledge's third hit when released as a single, charting at #7 R&B and #20 Pop. "Love Me Tender" was also released as a single later on in 1967 and managed to creep into the Top 40.

When A Man Loves A Woman (1966) <|> The Percy Sledge Way (1967)
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Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman (1966)

Percy Sledge was an American soul singer.

Percy Sledge was born in 1941 in Leighton, Alabama. During the 60s he sang in an R&B group called the Esquires at the weekends, whilst working as a hosptial orderly through the week. After many years of struggling to get himself a recording deal, he was finally discovered by DJ-turned-producer Quin Ivy. Ivy had recently set up Norala, a small recording studio and record label modelled after the success of Rick Hall's Fame Studios (and apparently all done with the blessing and encouragement of Hall himself, who was happy to send the work overflow at the busy Fame Studios in Ivy's direction).

At Norala, Ivy began working with Sledge on the song that has first captured his attention, and over several weeks they developed it into a finished product. The band featured on the record consisted of organist Spooner Oldham, bassist Junior Lowe and drummer Roger Hawkins, all on loan from Fame, plus guitarist Marlin Greene (who had originally been at Fame but had moved to Norala to act as Ivy's right hand man, and was a co-owner of the label). With the overdubbing of some backing vocals and horns, the song was finished, and with Rick Hall's help was leased to Atlantic Records for national distribution in 1966.

"When A Man Loves A Woman" became a huge surprise hit, even more impressive considering it was Percy Sledge's first release. It got to #1 not only on the R&B singles chart but also on the Billboard Hot 100, making it a true cross-over success. It also charted at #4 in the UK. Percy Sledge's career was launched, and he was quickly signed to Atlantic. A follow-up album was quickly put together to capitalize on the single's success, featuring a fine selection of southern soul numbers with which Sledge was able to introduce himself.

|> Warm & Tender Soul (1966)
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