It Tears Me up: The Best of Percy Sledge

Performer: Percy Sledge
Producer: Quin Ivy; Marlin Green
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Percy Sledge (vocals); Eddie Hinton, Jimmy Johnson, Marlin Green, Don Srygley (guitar); Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, Wayne Jackson, Jack Tex (trumpet); Wesley Fredic, Grailor Price, Carl Jackson, Carl Gholston (horns); James Mitchell, Andrew Love (saxophone); Spooner Oldham, Jerry Weaver (piano, organ); David Hood, Albert "Junior" Lowe (bass); Roger Hawkins (drums); Jeanie Green, Donna Thatcher, Jerry Eddleman, Mary Halladay, Susan Coleman (background vocals). Percy Sledge's first single, "When a Man Loves a Woman," was an instant masterpiece of deep Southern soul, so powerful and so distinctive it made him a star overnight and helped to quickly establish Muscle Shoals, AL, as one of the major recording centers in the Southern music scene. However, "When a Man Loves a Woman" was such a big hit that it tended to overshadow everything else Percy Sledge did from that point onward; while he had a handful of smaller hits and still records and tours, few people outside of soul obsessives are aware of the full scope of his recording career. It Tears Me Up: The Best of Percy Sledge, a typically well-assembled compilation album from Rhino Records, features 23 songs Sledge cut for Atlantic during the 1960s and makes an excellent case for the consistent strength of Sledge's Atlantic catalog. While Sledge specialized in sad songs of love gone wrong, he certainly knew how to make the most of such material, and his stellar, heart-tugging performances of "Take Time to Know Her," "Warm and Tender Love," "It's All Wrong but It's Alright," and the title tune prove that Sledge had more than one brilliant performance in his repertoire. Great stuff, and certainly the best Percy Sledge collection available. ~ Mark Deming

Percy Sledge, an important figure in Southern soul music, went from working as a hospital nurse to leading a local Alabama group called the Esquires Combo to having a huge national hit with 1966's gospel-tinged soul ballad "When a Man Loves a Woman." That record, and the rest of the material Sledge recorded for Atlantic in the '60s, displays his mastery of the genre. He resurfaced on Capricorn Records in 1974 and has performed and recorded ever since, but despite being one of the best deep Soul singers of his era, Sledge will always be associated principally with his evergreen '66 smash.

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