Background According to
Dan Penn, the song was initially recorded by Percy Sledge at
Rick Hall's
FAME Studios at
Muscle Shoals, before being re-recorded at the nearby Norala Studios owned by
Quin Ivy. The
sidemen for the recording included
Spooner Oldham,
Farfisa organ; Marlin Greene, guitar; Albert "Junior" Lowe, electric bass and
Roger Hawkins, drums. Also on the session were Jack Peck, trumpet, Billy Cofield and Don “Rim” Pollard, tenor sax, and Jerry Eddleman,
Donna Jean Godchaux, Jeanie Greene,
Sandy Posey, and Hershel Wiggington, backing vocals.
Authorship Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright were members of the Esquires, a band in
Sheffield, Alabama, fronted by singer Percy Sledge. According to Wright, "We were set to play a Friday night dance, and we were practicing ... I was messing around on the organ when this riff came up out of nowhere. There was no one in the club but us. I told Calvin to go home and write some words." The next night, they rehearsed the emerging song with Sledge, changed it around, and soon afterward auditioned the song for local businessman and radio DJ
Quin Ivy. He liked the song but suggested that some of the words be changed to give a more positive message. Wright said, "We kept some of the phrases, worked on it for several weeks, and spent quite a bit of time in the studio." Although the writing of the song is credited to Lewis and Wright, Sledge later said that he should have received a co-writing credit. In one story, Sledge said that one night he was upset over a broken relationship and asked Lewis and Wright to play a slow blues over which he improvised lyrics describing his emotions; Quin Ivy was at the show and asked the band to refine the lyrics so that it could be recorded. Sledge said that he allowed Lewis and Wright to take the writing credits because they gave him the opportunity "to sing his heart out". In another interview, Sledge said:When I wrote the song at first, it was called "Why Did You Leave Me Baby". And I changed it from that to "When a Man Loves a Woman". I just reversed it. Quin told me that if I was to write some lyrics around that melody and the expression I'd put into "Why Did You Leave Me Baby", he believed it would've been a hit record. He was one of the top disc jockeys at that time. Sure enough, he asked me if I had any lyrics for that. He said, "That's it! Write a story around that title! What a song that would be with that feeling you had!" It was a song that was meant to be. It wasn't just what I had done; it was the musicians, the producer, the background singers, the right time.
Charts Certifications ==Michael Bolton version==