In 1966, hospital orderly Percy Sledge recorded "When a Man Loves a Woman" at producer Quin Ivy's studio after a breakup with a girlfriend inspired lyrics credited to Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright. The release featured Marlin Greene on guitar, Spooner Oldham on Farfisa organ, Albert 'Junior' Lowe on bass, Roger Hawkins on drums, Jack Peck on trumpet, Bill Cofield on tenor sax, and Don Pollard on alto sax, and Greene and Ivy produced the recording. After Roger Hawkins asked Ivy to play it for FAME Studios owner Rick Hall, Hall contacted Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler, who released it; the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Atlantic's first certified gold record. Rolling Stone ranks it number 54 among the best songs of all time. Sledge entered The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, Spooner Oldham in 2009, and backup singer Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux had already been inducted in 1994 with Keith Godchaux and other members of the Grateful Dead. Quin Ivy, a record store owner and WLAY disc jockey, founded North Alabama Recording Studio, or NORALA, at 104 E. Second Street in Sheffield in 1965 using used equipment and egg cartons on the walls to deaden stray frequencies. NORALA's first recording was Florence native Donna Jean Thatcher's "I'm Out of Touch," and several months later Sledge recorded "When a Man Loves a Woman" there. With proceeds from the Sledge session, Ivy completed a better equipped studio across town in 1968 and named it Quinvy, and he also produced Tony Borders, Buddy Causey, Jeanie Green, Z.Z. Hill, Ben E. King, Mickey Buckings and The New Breed, Don Varner, the U.S. Male, and the Wee Juns.

Photo: Sandra Hughes

Photo: Sandra Hughes

Muscle Shoals, Alabama · USA