NORMAN - Soul
music legend Percy Sledge will perform at the Sooner Theatre.
Sledge, who was born in Leighton,
Ala., was working as a hospital orderly
when he began playing clubs and fraternity parties with the Esquires in 1965,
according to his biography in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As he recalls, "I was singing every style of music: the
Beatles, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Motown, Sam Cooke, the Platters."
"When a Man Loves a Woman" was Sledge's first
single, cut by producers Quin Ivy and Marlin Greene
at their studio in Sheffield, Ala. Sledge had carried the song's melody with
him for a long time.
"I hummed it all my life, even when I was picking and
chopping cotton in the fields," he said.
He improvised words to go with his melody one night while
performing at a fraternity party at the University
of Mississippi, and Ivy, who was
then a college student, told him, "If you ever think about cutting a
record, come on by, because I love that melody."
Released on Atlantic in 1966,
"When a Man Loves a Woman" topped the R&B and pop charts for
multiple weeks.
Through the years he racked up a dozen hits at Atlantic,
including "Warm and Tender Love," "It Tears Me Up,"
"Out of Left Field" and "Take Time to Know Her."
From Atlantic, Sledge moved to
Capricorn Records, where he cut "I'll Be Your Everything" (1974).
Many years passed before his next album, "Blue Night," on the
Pointblank label, in 1995. Guests on that project included Steve Cropper (from
Booker T. and the M.G.'s) and Bobby Womack. In
between releases, Sledge saw "When a Man Loves a Woman" return to
popularity when it was included on the soundtrack for "Platoon,"
Oliver Stone's 1986 film about the Vietnam War. That same year, "When a
Man Loves a Woman" was re-released in Britain,
reaching No. 2 on the charts there.
In 1989, Sledge received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's
first Career Achievement Award. Although his post-Atlantic recordings have been
infrequent, Sledge has remained an in-demand performer, averaging about 100
dates a year in the United States.
and Europe.
1/19/06
Source: NewsOK.com
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