Percy Sledge, soul singer of more than just "When A Man Loves A Woman"

Percy Sledge wasn't exactly a one-hit wonder, but the rest of the career of the Alabama born soul singer, who died at at 74 on Tuesday after a struggle with liver cancer is certanly overshadowed by the greatness of "When A Man Loves A Woman," the overpoweringly emotional song that he recorded at Rick Hall's FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1966.

When Percy Sledge's name is spoken - and when word of his death in Baton Rouge, Louisiana spread on Tuesday - the song that comes immediately to mind is the classic soul ballad that was his signature and the principal reason he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

But besides "When A Man Loves A Woman," which is credited to songwriters Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright but which Sledge claimed he co-wrote, what else? The other stone cold Sledge classic is "True Love Travels On A Gravel Road," another great emotionally frank love song that was covered most effectively by both Elvis Presley and Nick Lowe.

Sledge, who worked picking cotton and as a hospital orderly before "When A Man" became a #1 song,  did not have a string of hits like his R & B contemporaries Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett - or for that matter, the number of quality songs of obscure greats like O.V. Wright.  But then, he didn't need to: His one megahit sustained him for nearly 50 years, gaining new life when it was featured in the baby boom nostalgia hit movie The Big Chill in 1983 and being the couple's first dance song at a million weddings.

And as the day went by yesterday, my Facebook feed kept filling up with memorable Percy Sledge songs I had completely forgotten about. The most devastating is "It Tears Me Up," a bereft and broken hearted plaint, in the vein of Little Willie John's "I Need Your Love So Bad." It hit #20 on the U.S. pop chart in 1966. And a couple of other worthies are included below: "Out Of Left Field," a song about unexpected happiness which the gap-toothed singer sang in his tradmark, fully committed, raw throated style, came out in 1967. And "What Am I Living For?," another all-consuming romance, was a B-side of a cover of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" the same year.

Listen to all five songs below.

Previously:Was 1965 the best year ever for pop music? Follow In The Mix on Twitter here