Percy Sledge dead.

another 60s hero passed,recorded the superb "when a man loves a woman"

R.I.P.

"Loving eyes can never see" What a line, simple and elegant.

RIP

RIP Percy, but I always preferred his Sister's music.

Percy Sledge, who recorded the classic 1966 soul ballad When A Man Loves A Woman, has died at the age of 74.

William Clark, coroner for East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, confirmed that Sledge died early this morning.

Sledge's first recording took him from hospital orderly to a long touring career averaging 100 performances a year and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.


Between 1966 and 1968, Sledge used his forlorn vocal style to record a series of southern soul standards.

In later years, he continued to be an in-demand performer in the US and Europe as When A Man Loves A Woman kept popping up in movies including The Big Chill and The Crying Game.

He started his working life in the cotton fields around his hometown of Leighton in northwest Alabama, before taking a job as a hospital nurse in the early 1960s in nearby Sheffield.

A patient at the hospital heard him singing while he worked and recommended him to record producer Quin Ivy.

Sledge is survived by his wife and children.