Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman (1966/2013) [Hi-Res]

Before he was the “King of Country Soul,” Sledge was an Alabama-born former hospital worker, playing with a soul combo on weekends. In 1966 he signed to Atlantic, and, following a break-up with a longtime girlfriend, recorded a simple, heartfelt single, “When a Man Loves a Woman.” The impassioned, off-the-cuff delivery (an entirely honest one – Sledge improvised the lyrics on the spot) helped propel the song to No. 1 around the world. Sledge enjoyed other Top 40 hits for the rest of his Atlantic tenure, but it’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” that he’ll forever be associated with.

The aching sincerity in Percy Sledge’s voice on the #1 smash “When A Man Loves A Woman” made him an instant star in 1966. The singer spent the next eight years with Atlantic Records, refining his mix of country and soul in studios around Muscle Shoals, Alabama, not far from where Sledge was born in 1940.