Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge
Percy Tyrone Sledge (25 November 1940 – 14 April 2015) was born in Leighton, AL and was a soul and gospel singer. Best known for his 1966 song, “When a Man Loves a Woman” recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. He recorded several charting songs in the 1960s and 70s.
Sledge loved to tell the story about the impetus for “When a Man Loves a Woman”. He was a hospital orderly by day and a singer at night. One night he found he was so upset about a woman and a broken relationship that he couldn’t perform. He turned to his band mates and asked them to play a slow blues backing and he would sing what he was feeling. Sledge says the trio later reworked the idea he’d ad-libbed that night into the recorded version of the song. He says he gave them full writing credit for it, so essentially he gave them a gift worth millions.
Sledge continued to perform through 2004, when he retired. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.