It is refreshing to hear an artist who “came to fame” based on his love, and innate talent, of singing. He was also a very gracious man: Sledge gave all the writing credit to his two bandmates Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright (The Esquires, a band formed in Sheffield, Alabama fronted by Percy Sledge) even though he wrote the vast majority of the song himself. Percy:

Worst decision I ever made. But I am not at all bitter. I figure if God wanted me to do what I did, and say what I did to tell those guys they could have the song, then I’ll leave it that away and I would never change it.

As is often the case, the story of how the song came to be differs with whom is telling the story.

In Sledge’s version of the story, he co-wrote the song with his bandmates Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, but let them have sole composer credits, since they gave him the opportunity to sing his heart out. Whether Sledge was acting out of the goodness of his heart or had nothing to do with writing the song is a matter of debate, but the writing credit had huge implications, resulting in a windfall for Lewis and Wright, who get the royalties every time it is played. Since the song went on to be covered by many artists, they get paid for those as well. If it was a goodwill gesture by Sledge, it cost him millions of dollars.

According to co-writer Andrew Wright:

We were set to play a Friday night dance, and we were practicing … I was messing around on the organ when this riff came up out of nowhere. There was no one in the club but us. I told Calvin to go home and write some words.

The next night, they rehearsed the emerging song with Sledge, changed it around, and soon afterwards auditioned the song for local businessman and radio DJ Quin Ivy. He liked the song but suggested that some of the words be changed to give a more positive message. Wright continued:

We kept some of the phrases, worked on it for several weeks, and spent quite a bit of time in the studio.

Percy had a slightly different version on how the song was created. Sledge was an orderly at Colbert County (Alabama) Hospital in the daytime and sang with a local band, The Esquires Combo, at night. As Sledge tells it, one night while performing with The Esquires Combo, he was upset about a woman – a broken relationship – so upset that he couldn’t concentrate on the music he was supposed to sing. Percy says that when he originally sang this, he had in mind Lizz King, his girlfriend of three years who left him for a modeling job in Los Angeles. “I didn’t have any money to go after her, so there was nothing I could do to try and get her back.” He was so overcome with emotion as the group started their set in a Sheffield, Alabama club, that he turned to his bass player Calvin Lewis and organ player Andrew Wright and asked them if they could play a slow blues backing – any key, their choice – to which he could sing. After a quick conference (one source indicated that the “conference” consisted of glances and shrugs), the band started to play and Sledge vented in song for about six minutes.

In Sledge’s story, Quin Ivy was at the show and approached the band about polishing the song and recording it. Sledge says he worked on the lyrics with Lewis and Wright, and recorded it at Norala Sound with Ivy producing.

Quin Ivy’s sound studio was also a record store, and Ivy says that he met Sledge when the singer walked into the store one day and they were introduced by a mutual friend. Sledge and The Esquires tried recording the song at FAME, but it didn’t work, so the engineer there, Dan Penn, sent them over to Norala to record with Ivy, complete with their big B-3 organ for Wright to play. This recording was a success, and the song got proper distribution when Ivy played it for FAME’s owner Rick Hall, who contacted Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records (who knew there was talent in Alabama and told Hall to call him if he found any), who signed Sledge and released the song, which became a massive hit.

The sidemen for the recording included Spooner Oldham, Farfisa organ (although the final recording at Norala Records may have featured a Hammond B3); Marlin Greene, guitar; Albert “Junior” Lowe, double bass and Roger Hawkins, drums. Andrew Wright and Calvin Lewis did not play on the record. Spooner Oldham and Roger Hawkins were founding members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, affectionately called the Swampers, and have appeared on more than 500 recordings, including 75 gold and platinum hits.

It was in cotton fields as an agriculture worker that Sledge began humming and singing a melody that would circle in his head for many years, eventually getting fleshed out into a song called “When a Man Loves a Woman.” The tune was the highlight of Sledge’s stage show with his early band the Esquire Combos, though they only only gigged on weekends since Sledge worked full time as an orderly at an Alabama hospital.

In 1965 the group played a gig at a University of Mississippi frat house. Record producer and businessman Quin Ivy was in the audience that night, and he was blown away by the power of “When a Man Loves a Woman.” “If you ever think about cutting a record, come on by,” Ivy said. “I love that melody.” Sledge took him up on the offer and tracked the song with a killer backing band that included organist Spooner Oldham. The tape got the attention of Atlantic Records producer/executive Jerry Wexler, who released it as Sledge’s debut single in April of 1966.

The song was initially recorded by Percy Sledge at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios at Muscle Shoals, before being re-recorded at the nearby Norala Studios. Jerry Wexler asked that the song be re-recorded because the horns were out of tune. According to David Hood, who became the bass player in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section:

Wexler thought the horns on the original version were out of tune – and they were – and he wanted them to change the horns. They went back in the studio and changed the horns, got different horn players to play on it. But then the tapes got mixed up and Atlantic put out their original version. So that’s the hit.

In 1966, “When A Man Loves A Woman” reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts, a top ten hit in the UK reaching number four on its initial release and ultimately peaking at number two in 1987 on the UK Singles Chart. It is listed 53rd in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and Percy was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Here is his acceptance speech:

Sledge continued to score hits through the 1960s like “Warm and Tender Love,” “It Tears Me Up” and a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender,” but none had the impact of “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

All of my songs are the answer to that song, it’s the granddaddy to all of my songs. The boss of all of my songs. I have great respect for that song. Always will.

He stayed on the road for decades, releasing the occasional new album. He died in April 2015 of liver cancer at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Paul Sexton, writer at udiscovermusic, concludes:

His death at the age of 74, in 2015, robbed us of an Alabama soul man who recorded a host of other great material in a career of 50 years-plus.

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