Percy Sledge
Percy Tyrone Sledge (November 25, 1940 – April 14, 2015) was an American R&B, soul and gospel singer. He is best known for the song "When a Man Loves a Woman", a No. 1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts in 1966. It was awarded a million-selling, Gold-certified disc from the RIAA.
Percy Sledge
Percy Tyrone Sledge
November 25, 1940
Leighton, Alabama, U.S.
April 14, 2015 (aged 74)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
1960–2014
Atlantic, Capricorn, Monument, Point Blank, Diablo Records, Sledgehammer Records, Virgin
After working as a hospital orderly in the early 1960s, Sledge achieved his greatest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a series of emotional soul songs. In 1989, Sledge received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
Biography[edit]
Early career[edit]
Sledge was born on November 25, 1940, in Leighton, Alabama.[1][2] He worked in a series of agricultural jobs in the fields near Leighton, before taking a job as an orderly at Colbert County Hospital in Sheffield, Alabama. Through the mid-1960s, he toured the Southeast with the Esquires Combo on weekends,[3] while working at the hospital during the week. A former patient and mutual friend of Sledge and record producer Quin Ivy introduced the two. An audition followed, and Sledge was signed to a recording contract.[4]
Death[edit]
Sledge died of liver cancer at his home in Baton Rouge on April 14, 2015, at the age of 74.[13] His interment was in Baton Rouge's Heavenly Gates Cemetery.[14]
Sledge was: