40 Fun Facts About Percy Sledge

Percy Sledge is sometimes cited as the source of 'sledging', the trading of on-field insults in which sport?

Cricket picked up the word in 1960s Australia, and one tale has fielders taunting a batsman by singing a Percy Sledge hit. The duller theory traces it to 'subtle as a sledgehammer'.

What weekday job did Percy Sledge hold in the early 1960s while singing with a band on weekends?

Hospital orderly was his weekday job, and he sang on the wards as he worked. A former patient is said to have passed his name to the producer who signed him.

Which singer took a cover of Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' to No. 1 in America in 1991?

Michael Bolton's version topped the Hot 100 in November 1991, some 25 years after the original, making the song one of the few to reach No. 1 for two different artists.

Which clothing brand's 1987 TV advert sent Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' back up the British charts?

Levi's put the 1966 recording in a jeans advert, and the reissued single climbed to No. 2 in Britain, two places higher than it managed first time round.

Which Vietnam War film used Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman', prompting a 1987 reissue of the single?

Platoon, Oliver Stone's Best Picture winner, used the song, and the 21-year-old single was reissued in America to promote the film's soundtrack album.

Which actress starred in the 1994 drama that took its title from Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman'?

Meg Ryan played a school counselor battling alcoholism opposite Andy García, a dramatic turn that earned her a Screen Actors Guild nomination.

Donna Jean Godchaux, a backing singer on Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman', later joined which rock band?

The Grateful Dead had her as a vocalist from 1972 to 1979. Before that she was a Muscle Shoals session singer who also backed Elvis Presley on 'Suspicious Minds'.

In Percy Sledge's 1968 hit 'Take Time to Know Her', who first warns the singer not to rush into marriage?

His mother gives the advice of the title after one look at the bride-to-be. A preacher repeats it, and the hasty marriage soon ends in betrayal.

Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' earned the first gold single for which label, home of Aretha Franklin?

Atlantic Records had issued hits by Ray Charles and the Drifters, yet its first RIAA gold single came in July 1966 from a debut record cut in a tiny Southern studio.

What flaw is heard on Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' because the wrong tape was released?

Out-of-tune horns survive on the single: the label asked for a remake with new players, then pressed the original tape by mistake, and that take went to No. 1.

In which U.S. state was Percy Sledge born, in the small farming town of Leighton?

Alabama's rural northwest shaped him: he first sang in a Baptist church in Leighton, and the town announced an annual Sledgefest in his honor in 2022.

As a boy, Percy Sledge was told the whole world would hear his voice while he worked picking which crop?

Cotton fields around Leighton were his first workplace, from about the age of ten. He retold his field boss's prediction at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

Percy Sledge reached the American Top 40 in 1967 with a soul version of which Elvis Presley ballad?

Love Me Tender took Sledge to No. 40 on the Hot 100. In a 2005 interview he recalled his boyhood love of Elvis and of country singers.

Percy Sledge's second album covered 'Try a Little Tenderness', a standard made famous by which Georgia soul star?

Otis Redding turned the 1930s standard into a soul landmark in 1966, and Sledge's own version sits on an album that also remade an Elvis ballad.

Which 1983 film about a reunion of college friends used Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' on its soundtrack?

The Big Chill packed its soundtrack with 1960s soul and Motown, one of several films that kept bringing Sledge's ballad to new generations of listeners.

Which star sang Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' in The Rose, a 1979 film inspired by Janis Joplin?

Bette Midler belted it as a hard-living rock singer in her first starring film role, and her single reached the American Top 40 in 1980.

Which radio show did the young Percy Sledge love, feeding the country flavor of his later soul ballads?

The Grand Ole Opry reached him by radio in rural Colbert County, and one biographer likens his keening voice to the high-lonesome sound of country singers.

By Percy Sledge's account, 'When a Man Loves a Woman' was inspired by a girlfriend who left him to pursue what?

A modeling career lured her away just after he was laid off from a construction job in 1965, and he said the double blow became the song.

Which British rock singer, who had recorded in Muscle Shoals, inducted Percy Sledge into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Rod Stewart gave the induction speech in March 2005, and Sledge answered by singing his 1966 chart-topper on the televised ceremony.

Which Tennessee teenager wrote Percy Sledge's 'Take Time to Know Her' before a long career writing country hits?

Steve Davis had just turned 18 when the single took off. As Stephen Allen Davis he went on to write country chart-toppers for singers including Jo Dee Messina.

Which executive who coined the term 'rhythm and blues' wanted Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' re-recorded?

Jerry Wexler heard a flaw in the first take and wanted it redone. Decades later he wrote the liner notes for Sledge's 1994 comeback album.

Which session keyboardist, later a Neil Young sideman, played organ on Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman'?

Spooner Oldham played a Farfisa organ on the session. His nickname dates from a childhood accident with a spoon that cost him the sight in one eye.

Percy Sledge gave the writing credit for 'When a Man Loves a Woman' to two members of which band he fronted?

The Esquires' bassist Calvin Lewis and organist Andrew Wright are the only credited writers. Obituaries said the gift probably cost Sledge a fortune in royalties.

Which disc jockey and record-shop owner produced Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' at his own small studio?

Quin Ivy later left the music business, earned an MBA and spent years teaching accounting at a university close to his old studio.

In which Louisiana city, far from his Muscle Shoals roots, did Percy Sledge live for most of his career?

Baton Rouge was his home for decades and the place where he died in 2015, eight years after the state's music hall of fame inducted him.

Which reissued Ben E. King classic kept Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' at No. 2 in Britain in 1987?

Stand by Me was riding the same jeans campaign and a hit film of the same name, so two reissued 1960s soul ballads held the top two places.

Which British pop veteran recorded a duet with Percy Sledge for the 2011 album Soulicious and took him on tour?

Cliff Richard sang 'I'm Your Puppet' with him on the album of soul duets, and again on the tour that followed.

At which New Jersey rocker's 1982 wedding, with Bruce Springsteen as best man, did Percy Sledge sing his biggest hit?

Steven Van Zandt married Maureen Santoro on New Year's Eve 1982 with Little Richard presiding, and Sledge serenaded the couple with 'When a Man Loves a Woman'.

Which 1994 comeback album, recorded in Los Angeles, did Percy Sledge call his first since the early 1970s?

Blue Night was recorded in March 1994, and an Indianapolis Star critic called it easily the best record he had heard that year.

Which guitarist from the Rolling Stones' early-1970s lineup played slide on Percy Sledge's 1994 comeback album?

Mick Taylor adds slide guitar to a Fats Domino cover, a track Rolling Stone said showed Sledge could rock as hard as any Louisiana R&B singer.

Which soul star wrote Percy Sledge's 1967 single 'Baby, Help Me' and played guitar on his 1994 comeback album?

Bobby Womack's song gave Sledge a minor chart entry in 1967, and 27 years later he returned as a guest guitarist on the Los Angeles sessions.

Which cheating ballad, first cut by James Carr, did Percy Sledge cover in 1967?

The Dark End of the Street was written in about half an hour by two songwriters on a break from a card game, and Sledge recorded it a year after the original.

Which co-writer of the Box Tops' 'Cry Like a Baby' also co-wrote Percy Sledge's 'It Tears Me Up'?

Dan Penn wrote it and 'Out of Left Field' with his regular keyboard-playing partner, and the first of them gave Sledge a Top 20 pop hit in 1966.

Which Georgia label, home of the Allman Brothers Band, released Percy Sledge's 1974 hit 'I'll Be Your Everything'?

Capricorn Records was co-founded by Phil Walden, who had managed Sledge in the 1960s, and the title track became his last single to reach the Hot 100.

Which Classics IV hit of early 1968 did Percy Sledge cover on his album Take Time to Know Her?

Spooky had reached No. 3 for the Classics IV earlier that year, and Sledge's album set it beside a Fleetwoods oldie and new Southern soul songs.

In 1999, Percy Sledge's 1966 recording of 'When a Man Loves a Woman' entered which honor roll of historic records?

The Grammy Hall of Fame honors recordings more than 25 years old that have lasting historical significance, and Sledge's debut single joined it 33 years after its release.

Which outlaw country singer charted in 1982 with a cover of Percy Sledge's 'Take Time to Know Her'?

David Allan Coe took it to No. 58 on the country chart, and Joe Stampley had launched his solo career with the same song a decade earlier.

Which 1992 Neil Jordan thriller, famous for its twist, features Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman'?

The Crying Game set the 1966 recording beside Boy George's version of the title song on its soundtrack.

Which gravel-voiced English singer covered Percy Sledge's 'When a Man Loves a Woman' on a 1989 James Brown live album?

Joe Cocker sang it as a guest on Soul Session Live, an album credited to James Brown & Friends that also featured Wilson Pickett.

Which cousin of Percy Sledge, also from Leighton, scored an early Muscle Shoals hit with 'Steal Away'?

Jimmy Hughes cut 'Steal Away' in a single take in 1964, and Sledge had sung in his cousin's gospel group early on.