Reverend Al Green (b. April 13, 1946) is an American gospel and soul music singer who enjoyed great popularity in the early and mid 1970s. Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. The son of a sharecropper, he started out
... Reverend Al Green (b. April 13, 1946) is an American gospel and soul music singer who enjoyed great popularity in the early and mid 1970s. Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. The son of a sharecropper, he started out at age nine in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "e" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. He was kicked out of the group by his father because he was caught listening to Jackie Wilson.
Green formed a group called Al Greene & the Creations in high school. Curtis Rogers and Palmer James, two members of the Creations, formed an independent label called Hot Line Music Journal. The band, now known as the Soul Mates, recorded "Back Up Train" and released it on Hot Line Music; the song was an R&B chart hit. The Soul Mates' subsequent singles did not sell as well. Green came into contact with bandleader Willie Mitchell of Memphis' Hi Records in 1969, when Mitchell had hired him as a vocalist for a Texas show with Mitchell's band and then asked him to sign with the label.
Mitchell predicted stardom for Green, coaching him to find his own, unique voice at a time when Green had previously been trying to sing like his heroes Jackie Wilson, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Sam Cooke. Green's debut album with Hi Records was Green is Blue, a slow, horn-driven album that allowed Green to show off his powerful and expressive voice, with Mitchell arranging, engineering, and producing. The album was a moderate success. The next LP, Al Green Gets Next To You (1970), was a massive success that included four gold singles as Green developed his vocal and songwriting talents. Let's Stay Together (1972) was an even bigger success, as was I'm Still In Love With You (1972). Call Me was a critical sensation, and was also just as popular at the time; it is one of his most fondly remembered albums today. Al Green Explores Your Mind (1974) contained the song "Take Me to the River" covered by the Talking Heads on their second album.
On October 18, 1974, Green's girlfriend, Mary Woodson, poured boiling grits on him as he was showering (due to his rejection of her marriage proposal), causing second-degree burns on his back, stomach, and arm. She then killed herself in an adjacent bedroom. Deeply shaken by the event, Green converted to Christianity and became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976. Continuing to record R&B, Green saw his sales start to slip and the critics grew steadily harsher. 1977's The Belle Album was critically acclaimed but did not regain his former mass audience. In 1979, Green was injured while performing and interpreted this accident as a message from God. He then concentrated his energies towards pastoring his church and gospel singing, also appearing in 1982 with Patti Labelle in the musical Your Arms Too Short to Box With God. His first gospel album was The Lord Will Make a Way. From 1981 to 1989 Green recorded a series of gospel recordings, garnering eight "soul gospel performance" Grammys in that period. In 1984 director Robert Mugge released a documentary film, The Gospel According to Al Green, including interviews about his life and footage from his church.
After spending several years exclusively performing gospel, Green began to return to R&B. First, he released a duet with Annie Lennox, "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" for Scrooged, a Bill Murray film. His 1994 duet with country music singer Lyle Lovett blended country with R&B, garnering him his ninth Grammy, this time in a pop music category. Green's first secular album in some time was Your Heart's In Good Hands (1995), released to positive reviews but disappointing sales, the same year Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Green published Take Me to the River, a book discussing his career. The Grammys presented Green with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
Green released in 2003 a non-religious (secular) album entitled I Can't Stop, his first collaboration with Willie Mitchell since 1985's He is the Light. In March 2005 Al Green released "Everything's Ok", a follow up to his 2003 CD "I Can't Stop". Green also collaborated with Willie Mitchell on this secular CD as well. In 2004, Al Green was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Al Green still continues to tour, and to preach at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis, Tennessee.
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