When a Man Loves a Woman and Other Hits

Performer: Percy Sledge
Producer: Mark Pinkus...
Distributor: WEA Strategic Marketing

Notes: Audio Remasterer: Chris Clarke. Liner Note Author: Rocky Petralia. This is a super budget collection of Percy Sledge material that clocks in under half-an-hour. That said, every track is a solid performance, from the title cut to "Take Time to Know Her," to his visionary re-reading of "Love Me Tender," to the Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn nugget, "It Tears Me Up," to the Bobby Womack classic "Baby Help Me." The listener gets a taste of Sledge as both a killer soul crooner and a gritty blues and gospel singer. There may be better places to start with Sledge, but for the money, this little slab can't be beat. ~ Thom Jurek

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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