Legendary R&B Singer Percy Sledge Dies at Age 74

We have lost another music great …

Legendary R&B singer Percy Sledge has passed away at the age of 74 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Percy Sledge is most known for his 1966 hit, ‘When a Man Loves a Woman,’ that topped the R&B and Billboard pop charts, where it spent 13 weeks in 1966, peaking at No. 1. Amazingly he never received a dime of song writing or air play royalties for the song. Although it was reported that the singer had died of natural causes; however, he was in hospice care for cancer. His family released the following statement through his manager, Mark Lyman, Percy Sledge died at his home after a yearlong struggle with cancer. The cause of death was liver failure. Percy was married twice and is survived by his second wife, Rosa Sledge, whom he married in 1980, and his 12 children, two of whom became singers.

One of the best songs ever, ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’

Percy Sledge, the R&B belter whose biggest hit, “When a Man Loves a Woman,” became a cornerstone of soul music, died Tuesday. He was 73.

Sledge died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said Stephanie Price of the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office. Sledge died of natural causes, said East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. William Clark. He had been in hospice care for cancer, Clark added.

In a career that started in the 1960s, Sledge had a number of hits, including “Take Time to Know Her,” “Warm and Tender Love” and “It Tears Me Up” among them.

But his first and biggest hit, “When a Man Loves a Woman,” towered over them all.

NY Times Obit – Single Session Launched Percy Sledge, No. 1 Hit, and a Sound.

Sledge, who died Tuesday, grew up singing in nearby cotton fields of northwest Alabama and never had been in a studio before that day. He didn’t even know how to work a microphone during that first session, Johnson said.

Johnson had to twirl the volume dials on the recording machine just to keep Sledge’s untrained voice at the correct levels during the session, but it worked. The track would become a No. 1 hit in 1966 and establish Sledge as a rhythm-and-blues singer of the first order.

“It gave us chills,” Johnson said.

Afterward, Sledge became a star and helped his native northwest Alabama establish itself as a recording Mecca that drew Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers, Bob Seger and other top-shelf stars of the 1960s and ’70s in search of the “Muscle Shoals Sound.”

Johnson, now 72, said it all began when Sledge sang “When a Man Loves a Woman,” with its haunting lyrics and his mournful, blue-eyed style.

“Everything lined up for this,” said Johnson, who played rhythm guitar for the great Muscle Shoals studio group called “The Swampers.”