Al Green

The Memphis soul singer who made his best-known records for Hi Records with producer Willie Mitchell, from Tired of Being Alone in 1971 to The Belle Album in 1977, before turning to the church.

Origin: Forrest City, Arkansas, United States
Years active: 1966-present
Genres: soul, Memphis soul, R&B, gospel
Labels: Hot Line Music, Hi Records, Myrrh, A&M, RCA, Blue Note
Also known as: Al Greene

Arkansas to Memphis

Albert Greene was born on 13 April 1946 in Forrest City, Arkansas, the sixth of ten children of a sharecropper family. The family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the late 1950s. As Al Greene & the Soul Mates he recorded Back Up Train in 1966 for the independent Hot Line Music label, and it became an R&B hit that reached number 46 on the Cashbox Top 100. Their follow-ups and their 1967 album did not chart.

Green then played a Texas show with the band of the Memphis producer Willie Mitchell, who asked him to sign with Hi Records. Mitchell became his vocal mentor. He had noticed Green trying to sing like Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett and James Brown, and he coached him toward a voice of his own. Before his first Hi album Green dropped the final e from his name.

The Hi years

Mitchell took over running Hi in 1970 and made the records at Royal Studios, a former movie theater at 1320 South Lauderdale in Memphis, with the Hi Rhythm Section: the brothers Charles, Leroy and Teenie Hodges, and Howard Grimes or Al Jackson Jr. on drums. Mitchell believed the slope of the old theater floor made the music bigger. Al Green Gets Next to You (1971) brought Green's first significant hit, Tired of Being Alone, the first of eight gold singles he would release between 1971 and 1974. Let's Stay Together followed on 31 January 1972. Its title song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed at the top of the R&B chart for nine weeks, and the album was his first to be certified gold.

I'm Still in Love with You arrived that October and went platinum, with Love and Happiness among its songs. Call Me (1973) produced three top-10 singles, among them Here I Am (Come and Take Me). Take Me to the River, written with Teenie Hodges, appeared in 1974 and went on to a hit version by Talking Heads. Rolling Stone's Elias Leight later wrote that in these hands the guitars were liquid rather than stabbing and the drums were subtler. Pitchfork said Mitchell knew how to shape Green's gifts into compact 210-second packages.

The church

On 18 October 1974 an incident at his Memphis home left Green in hospital. In 1976 he took on the Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Memphis, and the Guardian reports that he and Mitchell ended their partnership that year. The Belle Album (1977) was the first made without Mitchell and the Hi Rhythm Section, with Green playing lead guitar. Questlove told the Guardian in 2008 that in the eyes of Green's fans the last Al Green record was from 1977.

In 1979 Green injured himself falling off the stage in Cincinnati and took it as a message from God. From 1980 he recorded gospel albums, the first of six for Myrrh, and the title song of The Lord Will Make a Way won the first of eight Grammy Awards he took in the Best Soul Gospel Performance category.

Return and standing

He came back to pop in 1988 with Put a Little Love in Your Heart, a duet with Annie Lennox for the film Scrooged, and reunited with Mitchell for I Can't Stop in 2003 and Everything's OK in 2005. Lay It Down (2008), produced by Questlove and James Poyser, became his first album to reach the top 10 since the early 1970s. Mitchell died on 5 January 2010, aged 81.

Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, which describes his voice as intimate and unadorned, bursting with both spiritual yearning and earthy desire. He has won 11 Grammy Awards, among them the Lifetime Achievement Award, and received the Kennedy Center Honors on 7 December 2014. Pitchfork wrote in 2009 that nobody else had his virtuosity or interpretive gifts. Green himself told the Guardian the same year that he thought of himself as an entertainer who wrote some songs, and that Mitchell must have put something on them, because nobody can forget them.

Records

Al Green Gets Next to You 1971 · Hi Records
The third album, with the Temptations cover that saved him from one-hit-wonder status and the first significant hit of his own, Tired of Being Alone.
Let's Stay Together 1972 · Hi Records
Green's fourth album and the first of six consecutive number ones on the soul albums chart, built around a number-one title song and a six-minute Bee Gees cover.
I'm Still in Love with You 1972 · Hi Records
The 1972 follow-up, with Love and Happiness, a six-minute Kristofferson cover and a drum break sampled more than 200 times.
Call Me 1973 · Hi Records
Three top-10 singles, covers of Hank Williams and Willie Nelson, and an album Pitchfork found as intimate as a bedside table drawer.
The Belle Album 1977
The twelfth album, made without Mitchell or the Hi Rhythm Section, with Green on lead guitar for the first time.

Songs

Let's Stay Together Let's Stay Together · 1971
Green's signature song and only number-one pop single, recorded at Royal Studios with Willie Mitchell.
Tired of Being Alone Al Green Gets Next to You · 1971
Green's first big hit of his own, written in 1968 and held back until the recording worked.
Love and Happiness I'm Still in Love with You · 1972
Written with guitarist Teenie Hodges, an album track that took years to reach a US single.
Take Me to the River 1974
Written with Teenie Hodges in three days at a rented lake house, a song Hi gave away as a single to Syl Johnson.
Here I Am (Come and Take Me) Call Me · 1973
The second single from Call Me, later a top-10 hit in the United States for UB40.
I'm Still in Love with You I'm Still in Love with You · 1972
The title song of the 1972 album, two weeks at number one on the soul singles chart.

Willie Mitchell, Hi Rhythm Section, Talking Heads, Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles

Where to go next

Reference

Al Green at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Hall's page for his 1995 induction, with a list of influences.
Royal Studios: History The studio's own account of the old movie theater, Hi Records and the Mitchell years.
Library of Congress National Recording Registry The registry listing that includes Let's Stay Together.
Al Green A career history.
Hi Records The Memphis label and its recording history.
Hi Rhythm Section The house band, with members and history.
Willie Mitchell Biography of the producer and Royal Studios owner.

Writing and criticism

Al Green: 10 of the best A long song-by-song guide to the career, from Back Up Train to Lay It Down.
Willie Mitchell obituary The producer's life, Royal Studios and the Hi Records story.
Pitchfork on the 2009 reissues An appreciation of Let's Stay Together, I'm Still in Love with You and Greatest Hits.
Pitchfork: the 200 best songs of the 1970s Entries on Let's Stay Together and Love and Happiness.
Pitchfork: top 100 albums of the 1970s Mark Richardson on Call Me.
Pitchfork on Lay It Down A review of the 2008 Questlove and James Poyser album.

Interviews

Al Green on fame, God and Michael Jackson A 2009 interview in which Green talks about fame and the ministry.
Rolling Stone: Howard Grimes interview The Hi Records drummer on how the records were made.

Live performance archives

Al Green leaves soul music for gospel A Guardian review from 1984 of Green's gospel show in London.

Sources

Al Green, Wikipedia
Al Green, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Al Green: 10 of the best, The Guardian (2016-04-20)
Al Green on fame, God and Michael Jackson, The Guardian (2009-07-23)
Willie Mitchell obituary, The Guardian (2010-01-06)
Royal Studios: History, Royal Studios
Al Green's drummer Howard Grimes on giving Southern soul its funky heartbeat, Rolling Stone (2021-12-29)