Though his “When A Man Loves A Woman” remains a universal standard, Percy Sledge’s name is often absent from lists of Sixties soul greats. Somewhat obscured by Otis Redding, who had a similar style and hailed from the same rural Southern territory, Sledge recorded four brilliant LPs for Atlantic between 1966 and 1968, and while 1969’s greatest hits package The Best of Percy Sledge doesn’t contain every great Sledge recording, it collects his most famous songs from his uninterrupted streak of devastating, deep soul music. Recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Studios in northwestern Alabama, Sledge’s songs define rural soul grit. His wailing, crying vocal style and lovelorn laments share much with country music and unsurprisingly Sledge was among the first to cover songs by artists like Charlie Rich and Kris Kristofferson. And while the musicians and producers of Muscle Shoals played a big part in making these songs immortal, songwriter Dan Penn may have been Sledge’s greatest benefactor. As writer or co-writer of “Out of Left Field,” “The Dark End of the Street,” and “It Tears Me Up,” Penn’s tales brought a new sense of poetry and drama into soul music, and the partnership he forged with Sledge is one of soul music’s richest collaborations.