It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge
May 31, 1966
“When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge
#1 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart, May 7 – June 3, 1966
As home to the legendary Stax Records, Memphis was the epicenter of the Southern soul scene in the early 1960s. The status of both the city and the label were cemented when New York-based Atlantic Records began sending its R&B stars like Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave to record at Stax’s studios, backed by Stax house band Booker T. & the MGs. In turn, Atlantic handled distribution for Stax, helping transform a small regional label into a hitmaking powerhouse. But as closely entwined as their fortunes appeared to be, Stax and Atlantic were still rivals. By early 1966, Stax head Jim Stewart, tired of letting another label profit off his studio’s distinctive sound, sent Atlantic searching for a new Southern home.
Meanwhile, Atlantic was having problems of its own. The label that had been the most popular source for R&B in the ‘50s had begun to founder in the early ‘60s, losing valuable artists and struggling to match upstarts like Motown. Atlantic made up for the shortfall of in-house productions by licensing promising records from smaller regional labels. This was how the relationship with Stax had started, and how Atlantic would discover its next Southern soul Mecca about 150 miles southeast of Memphis.
In 1965, a hospital orderly named Percy Sledge cut his debut single at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The song starts out like an ode to devotion: “When a man loves a woman / can’t keep his mind on nothing else / he’ll trade the world for the good thing he’s found.” But for all its romantic slow-dance potential, “When a Man Loves a Woman” is less about love than it is about heartbreak and self-ruin. By the time the slightly out-of-tune horns show up in the final few seconds, they sound as broken as the singer’s spirit.
The churchy organ line that opens “When a Man Loves a Woman” announces immediately that this is something completely different from any soul-flavored pop hit that had come before it. That Farfisa, along with the backing choir vocals, betrays soul’s origins in gospel music, while the twangy guitar could have been ripped from a country song. Sledge’s secular testifying seems freeform and off the cuff, yet carves out a melody as indelible and resilient as any hymn or Tin Pan Alley tune.
Atlantic recognized the potential of Sledge and his song, but requested it be rerecorded with a new horn section at nearby Norala Sound Studios. (Nevertheless, a mix-up led to the original FAME recording evidently becoming the hit.) Not only did Sledge’s song top the R&B charts, it became a #1 pop hit as well — a rare feat at the time for a non-Motown soul record. But beyond its immediate massive success, “When a Man Loves a Woman” also introduced a new type of music to the pop lexicon, a deeply Southern stew of soul, country, and gospel that would become the trademark of the Shoals region. With Stax no longer an option, Atlantic opted to send many of its artists to record at FAME Studios, making the Muscle Shoals sound as prominent as Memphis soul in the late 1960s. Because of Percy Sledge and his crossover hit, a struggling young singer named Aretha Franklin went down to record in Alabama, and returned as the Queen of Soul.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
