Al Green
Al Green (* 13. April 1946 in Forrest City , Arkansas born Albert Greene ) is an American singer and preacher .
biography
Green began his career as a singer at the age of nine as a member of his father's gospel group , the Green Brothers. In the early 1960s he founded the group "Al Green and the Creations" with Curtis Rogers and Palmer Jones. The Creations renamed themselves "Soulmates" and landed a hit in 1967 with the song Back Up Train .
Al Green met Hi Records producer Willie Mitchell in 1969. Together with him, Green's hit Tired of Being Alone was created . The album Al Green Gets Next to You (1970) hit the Billboard charts. The following 1972 album Let's Stay Together was also a huge hit; the theme song reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 . In the same year, the album I'm Still in Love with You was released , followed in 1973 by the album Call Me with the top 10 singles Here I Am , Call Me and Sha-La-La - Make Me Happy . Al Green became a superstar of soul and rhythm and blues (R&B).
In 1974 Al Green suffered a stroke of fate privately. His girlfriend at the time, Mary Woodson, doused him with hot grits while he was in the bathtub, burning half his torso. She then shot herself. The motive for this was that he turned down her marriage proposal. Under the impression of this event, Green turned to the Christian faith. He founded the Church of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis and became a preacher there. In 1977 the singer opened his own studio "American Music". The following two albums, The Belle Album (1977) and Truth and Time (1978), he produced himself. The commercial success as with the earlier albums failed to materialize.
In 1979, Al Green fell off the stage during a gig. He did not suffer serious injuries from what the singer interpreted as a sign of God, whereupon he turned away from secular music and switched to gospel and religious pop songs and R&B numbers. The Lord Will Make a Way was the first of numerous albums in this direction.
Green returned to his musical and secular roots in the mid-1980s and recorded the song Put a Little Love in Your Heart with Annie Lennox for the film The Ghosts I Called . In 1989 he recorded a duet with Al B Sure: As Long as We're Together ; in the same year he sang the hit song The Message Is Love produced by Arthur Baker . The 1993 album Don't Look Back was a huge hit. In 1994 Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .
In 2003 he released the album I Can't Stop together with his old successful producer Willie Mitchell . The work was celebrated as a terrific comeback. In 2004, Al Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Belle album appeared on The Wire's "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)" list . During all these years he preached in his church in Memphis.
In 2014 Green was awarded the Kennedy Prize . The Rolling Stone listed Green as 66th of the 100 greatest musicians, 14th of the 100 best singers and 38th of the 100 best songwriters of all time .
Discography
Albums
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1972 | Al Green Gets Next to You | - | - | - | - |
US58 (43 weeks) US |
First published: 1971
|
Let's stay together | - | - | - | - |
US8th
gold
(56 weeks)US |
First published: 1971
|
|
Al Green | - | - | - | - |
US162 (9 weeks) US |
contains recordings from 1967/68
|
|
I'm still in love with you | - | - | - | - |
US4th
platinum
(67 weeks)US |
285th place in the Rolling Stone 500
|
|
1973 | Green is blues | - | - | - | - |
US19 (28 weeks) US |
First published: 1969
|
Call me | - | - | - | - |
US10
gold
(41 weeks)US |
285th place in the Rolling Stone 500
|
|
1974 | Livin 'for you | - | - | - | - |
US24
gold
(30 weeks)US |
First published: 1973
|
1975 | Al Green Explores Your Mind | - | - | - | - |
US15th
gold
(33 weeks)US |
First published: 1974
|
Al Green Is Love | - | - | - | - |
US28 (23 weeks) US |
||
1976 | Full of fire | - | - | - | - |
US59 (16 weeks) US |
First published: 1976
|
1977 | Have a good time | - | - | - | - |
US93 (14 weeks) US |
|
1978 | The Belle album | - | - | - | - |
US103 (12 weeks) US |
First published: 1977
|
1987 | Soul survivor | - | - | - | - |
US131 (14 weeks) US |
|
2004 | I can't stop | - | - | - | - |
US53 (12 weeks) US |
First published: 2003
|
2005 | Everything's OK | - | - | - | - |
US50 (7 weeks) US |
First published: 2004 as The Reverend Al Green
|
2008 | What Makes the World Go Round? | - | - | - | - |
US196 (3 weeks) US |
|
Lay it down | - |
AT54 (3 weeks) AT |
CH99 (1 week) CH |
UK88 (1 week) UK |
US9 (15 weeks) US |
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
More albums
|
|
Compilations
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1975 | Al Green's Greatest Hits | - | - | - |
UK18th
silver
(16 weeks)UK |
US17th
gold
(21 weeks)US |
52nd place in the Rolling Stone 500
|
1977 | Al Green's Greatest Hits, Volume II | - | - | - | - |
US134 (9 weeks) US |
|
1988 | Hi Life - The Best of Al Green | - | - | - |
UK34
silver
(7 weeks)UK |
- | |
1992 | Al | - | - | - |
UK41 (2 weeks) UK |
- | |
1995 | Al Green's Greatest Hits (Re-release) | - | - | - | - |
US127 × 2
(29 weeks)US |
|
2000 | Take me to the river | - | - | - | - |
US186 (1 week) US |
Double CD
|
2002 | Love - The Essential | - | - | - |
UK18th
silver
(6 weeks)UK |
- |
Double CD
|
2003 | The Love Song Collection | - | - | - | - |
US91 (3 weeks) US |
|
2007 | The Definitive Greatest Hits | - | - | - | - |
US46 (11 weeks) US |
|
2012 | Greatest hits | - | - | - | - |
US127 (30 weeks) US |
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
More compilations
|
|
EPs
- 1973: Call Me
- 1977: I Tried to Tell Myself
Singles
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1967 | Back up train | - | - | - | - |
US41 (12 weeks) US |
|
1970 | I can't get next to you | - | - | - | - |
US60 (10 weeks) US |
|
1971 | Tired of Being Alone | - | - | - |
UK4 (13 weeks) UK |
US11
gold
(19 weeks)US |
|
Let's stay together | - | - | - |
UK7th
gold
(12 weeks)UK |
US1
gold
(16 weeks)US |
||
1972 | Look What You Done for Me | - | - | - |
UK44 (4 weeks) UK |
US4th
gold
(12 weeks)US |
|
I'm still in love with you | - | - | - |
UK35 (5 weeks) UK |
US3
gold
(12 weeks)US |
||
Guilty | - | - | - | - |
US69 (7 weeks) US |
||
You ought to be with me | - | - | - | - |
US3
gold
(15 weeks)US |
||
1973 | Hot wire | - | - | - | - |
US71 (5 weeks) US |
First published: 1972
|
Call Me (Come Back Home) | - | - | - | - |
US10
gold
(11 weeks)US |
First published: 1972
|
|
Here I Am (Come and Take Me) | - | - | - | - |
US10
gold
(15 weeks)US |
First published: 1972
|
|
Livin 'for you | - | - | - | - |
US19 (11 weeks) US |
||
1974 | Let's get married | - | - | - | - |
US32 (11 weeks) US |
First published: 1973
|
Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy) | - | - | - |
UK20 (10 weeks) UK |
US7th
gold
(19 weeks)US |
||
1975 | LOVE | - | - | - |
UK24 (8 weeks) UK |
US13 (12 weeks) US |
|
Oh Me, Oh My (Dreams in My Arms) | - | - | - | - |
US48 (6 weeks) US |
||
Full of fire | - | - | - | - |
US28 (11 weeks) US |
||
1976 | Keep me cryin ' | - | - | - | - |
US37 (14 weeks) US |
|
1978 | Belle | - | - | - | - |
US83 (5 weeks) US |
First published: 1977
|
1988 | Put a Little Love in Your Heart |
DE20 (11 weeks) DE |
AT4 (16 weeks) AT |
CH11 (9 weeks) CH |
UK28 (8 weeks) UK |
US9 (17 weeks) US |
with Annie Lennox
|
1989 | The Message Is Love |
DE6 (26 weeks) DE |
AT4 (18 weeks) AT |
- |
UK38 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
Arthur Baker & the Backbeat Disciples feat. Al Green
|
1993 | Love is a beautiful thing |
DE57 (14 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK56 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
More singles
|
|
Awards for music sales
Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.
Country / Region | silver | gold | platinum | Sales | swell |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
|||||
United States (RIAA) | - | 14 × gold14th | 3 × platinum3 | 14,000,000 | riaa.com |
United Kingdom (BPI) | 5 × silver5 | 3 × gold3 | - | 900,000 | bpi.co.uk |
All in all | 5 × silver5 | 17 × gold17th | 3 × platinum3 |
Artist awards
- 1981: for Lord Will Make a Way as "Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album"
- 1982: for Precious Lord as "Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album"
- 1982: for Higher Plane as "Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album"
- 1983: for I'll Rise Again as "Best Soul Gospel Performance, Male - Singles, Albums or Tracks"
- 1984: for Sailin 'on the Sea of Your Love as "Best Soul Gospel Performance by a Duo, Group, Choir or Chorus - Singles, Albums or Tracks"
- 1986: for Going Away as "Best Soul Gospel Performance, Male - Singles, Albums or Tracks"
- 1987: for Everything's Gonna Be Alright as "Best Soul Gospel Performance, Male - Singles, Albums or Tracks"
- 1989: for As Long as We're Together as "Best Soul Gospel Performance, Male - Singles, Albums or Tracks"
- 1994: for Funny How Time Slips Away as "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals"
- 2008: for You've Got the Love I Need as "Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance"
- 2008: for Stay with Me (By the Sea) as "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals"
swell
- ↑ Al Green in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- ↑ 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 7, 2017 .
- ↑ 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 7, 2017 .
- ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: Singles Albums US1 US2
- ↑ a b The Billboard album by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
- ↑ a b c gold / platinum databases: UK US
- ^ Billboard Awards
Web links
- Official website
- Al Green at Allmusic (English)
- Al Green at Discogs (English)
- Works by and about Al Green in the catalog of the German National Library
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Green, Al |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer and preacher |
DATE OF BIRTH | April 13, 1946 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Forrest City , Arkansas |