Al Green's voice found its own shape in Memphis

Al Green was born in 1946 in Forrest City, Arkansas, one of ten children of a sharecropper. He began singing with his sister in a group called the Greene Brothers at about ten, and the family later moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. His religious father threw him out of the house when he caught his teenage son listening to Jackie Wilson. Green later said that, at thirteen, he simply loved Elvis Presley.

He formed Al Greene & the Creations, then Al Greene & the Soul Mates, who in 1966 recorded “Back Up Train” and had an R&B hit, though the follow-ups did not chart. A meeting with Memphis producer Willie Mitchell changed everything. In 1969 Mitchell asked him to sign with Hi Records, and having noticed that Green imitated Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett and James Brown, he coached him to find his own sound. Before his first Hi album, Green dropped the final “e” from his surname.

The breakthrough was “Tired of Being Alone”, which sold a million copies in 1971, the first of eight gold singles between 1971 and 1974. In January 1972 came “Let's Stay Together”, which reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts. That year “Look What You Done for Me” and “I'm Still in Love with You” both made the Hot 100 top ten. Later came “Love and Happiness” and “Take Me to the River”, the work of a long partnership with Mitchell and the Hi Rhythm Section.

In the 1980s Green became an ordained pastor and recorded gospel music. Honours followed: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, eleven Grammy Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and a place at number ten on Rolling Stone's list of the 200 greatest singers. The museum site has called him one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music, and records like “Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)” and “L-O-V-E (Love)” explain why.