Percy Sledge: 10 Essential Tracks

"When a Man Loves a Woman" made Percy Sledge's career, but it was also the first Southern soul record to top the Billboard Hot 100. Other R&B singles had become pop Number Ones — many were racked up by Ray Charles at the dawn of the Sixties — but Sledge's hit opened the doors for deep soul, creating a sound others would mimic for years to come (not to mention cover, as Michael Bolton did on a faithful chart-topper from 1991). Oversaturation may have rendered the song too familiar, but nothing can diminish the power of Sledge's performance: It's passionate but also nuanced, his heartbreak surfacing in the quiet murmurs where it seems as if he's gasping for air between sobs.

Sledge's second single serves as a sweet antidote to the sadness of his debut. It's another plea, but this time the singer's heart is open, not broken, as he offers his warm and tender love. The subject is lighter and so is the touch, with the band grooving along at an easy simmer and Sledge skillfully modulating his performance to radiate warmth. In a career filled with sorrowful ballads, this bit of optimism is welcome.

On his third single, Percy Sledge returned to heartbreak. If the tempo of "It Tears Me Up" is slightly swifter than "When a Man Loves a Woman," the anguish is just as palpable. Watching his woman walking with another man, Sledge can barely handle the pain. It's impossible to doubt him, but the song itself seems to offer lift. Written by the soul titans Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn, "It Tears Me Up" isn't a prototypical slow-burner: The quick pace and insistent melody create a tension that makes the tune one of Sledge's most memorable.

It seems that every Southern soul singer of the Sixties took a stab at "The Dark End of the Street," the Dan Penn-Chips Moman song first recorded by James Carr. There's never been a bad version, but Percy Sledge's, recorded a year after Carr's original, is among the very best. Sledge was ideally suited for the tale of star-crossed lovers: When he sings, it's clear that he feels the weight of this stolen romance. But no matter how much it pains him, there's nothing he can do to bring his affair out into the light.

Cut from the same cloth as "Warm and Tender Love," the Eddie Hinton/Marlin Greene song "Cover Me" is another plea for love, which means it's one of the rare Percy Sledge songs where the pleasure outweighs the pain. Sledge is still begging his lover to stay, but the very fact that the heartbreak has yet to happen gives this single a glimmer of hope, a positive vibe the organ-heavy, laidback groove mirrors.

Sledge's second biggest hit, "Take Time to Know Her" is a nearly gothic tale of betrayal. The singer takes his future bride home to his mother and, with one glance, mama calls her son to her side and cautions him, "Take time to know her." But Sledge doesn't listen to his mama nor does he listen to his preacher – he rushes into the marriage and finds his heart swiftly broken. The story is a shade overheated but not the singer's performance: There are no dramatic runs, no testifying, just slow, mournful regret.

Another excellent song from Greene and Hinton, "It's All Wrong but It's Alright" is a bit of a rarity from Sledge: It's a song where he seems to take pleasure in his transgressions. If the singer were racked with guilt on "The Dark End of the Street," here he seems overwhelmed by just how good being wrong feels, and that unexpected carnality gives "It's All Wrong but It's Alright" a kick.

"True Love Travels on a Gravel Road" was Sledge's first single to fail to reach any Billboard chart, but it stands as one of his unsung masterpieces. A smooth, natural slice of country-soul that places equal emphasis on both sides of the equation, the song is perhaps the strongest supporting evidence to Sledge's claim that he sung a little bit of everything.

Sledge's last hit, "I'll Be Your Everything," made it to 15 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1974 and it shows that he was skillful enough to navigate shifting fashions if he wanted. It's another slow-burning ballad, one that has roots in "When a Man Loves a Woman," but also one that's been given an appealingly slick '70s makeover, and has just enough strings and backing vocals to sound supple, not sappy.

This cover of the old Fats Domino tune "Goin' Home" – a pre-rock & roll R&B hit from 1952 – is unlike almost anything else in Sledge's discography. The singer rarely tackled something as greasy as New Orleans R&B and this version, goosed along by slide guitar from former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, shows that if Sledge wanted to, he could've rocked as hard as any other Louisiana R&B singer. He just chose to specialize in ballads and, really, with a voice like that, who could blame him?