During the first half of the Seventies decade, Al Green was one of the sexiest voices on the radio. When Al had his one and only number one song, “Let’s Stay Together” in 1972, he had been singing in one form or another since he was a young boy.

Al Green was born Albert Leornes Greene in 1946 in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of ten children and his parents were sharecroppers. They were devoutly religious and Al grew up singing in the church, just as many of his peers did. His parents moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan when Al was nine. He continued to sing with other boys he met in Michigan and formed a groups who would sing gospel music.

When he was a teenager, his father caught him listening to Jackie Wilson on the radio and kicked him out of the house. He decided to make music his career and joined with some other guys, calling themselves Al Greene and the Creations. After the Creations broke up, he created Al Greene and the Soul Mates. They recorded a record called “Back Up Train” which just missed being Top 40 as it peaked at number 41.

He met a man from Memphis named Willie Mitchell and Mitchell asked Al if he’d like to come to Memphis, Tennessee and record with Mitchell’s band. Al didn’t like Memphis much, but went anyway and soon, Hi Records, who Mitchell worked for signed him to a record contract. Before he released his first album, Mitchell convinced him to drop the “e” at the end of his name and from then on, he was known as Al Green.

Al’s first record for Hi was “I Can’t Get Next to You,” a cover of the Temptations song which went to number one in 1969. The best Al could do, however, was sixty. His first record to chart in the Top 40 was “Tired of Being Alone” which reached number eleven. His next recording, “Let’s Stay Together” which was written by Al Green, Willie Mitchell and Al Jackson did the trick as it went to number one.

Al continued to chart through the Seventies, his last time in 1988 when he and Annie Lennox got the song “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” up to number nine. An incident which almost shut down his careen happened in 1974 when he and a girlfriend were in a motel room. Al was showering when the girl suddenly opened the door and poured a bowl of boiling hot grits all over him. She then killed herself with a gun they had. Apparently, the girl wanted Al to marry her, even though she was already married to someone else and Al would not go along. This could have stopped Al completely, but he kept going.

He says he was “born-again” in 1973 and decided to give up rock and roll, although he did continue to record for a number of years. He took the incident with the grits as a wake-up call and decided to go into the ministry. In 1976, he became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis. Today, he is still known as “Reverend Al.” He is 72 years old and as far I know, still lives in Memphis.

“Let’s Stay Together” debuted on the pop charts on December 11, 1971 and spent one week at number one. It stayed on the charts sixteen weeks making it the eleventh most popular song of 1972. It topped the R&B charts for nine weeks, making it the number one most popular song on the R&B charts for 1972.

I had a lot of trouble finding a good recording of this song on YouTube. This is the best I could find: