Biography of Al Green

Although he could sing with the urgency of James Brown when the situation dictated (witness his astonishing performance on "Love Ritual"), Al Green is renowned for his gossamer ballads.Born near Memphis, Green was brought up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and (as is the case with most great soul singers) his background was in Black religious music. His first hit came in 1967 ("Back up Train" on The Hot Line label), but it was not until he went back to Memphis and allied himself with producer Willie Mitchell at Hi Records that Green discovered what was unique in him. Over the course of several years, Green and Mitchell perfected a ballad style the equal of any in Black music. Green could slip effortlessly from his normal range to falsetto, teasing words and phrases with idiosyncratic emphases so that even a song like The Temptations" "I Can't Get Next to You" became uniquely his.For his part, Willie Mitchell framed Al Green's vocals with the sparse elegance of his rhythm section paired with horn and string arrangements. The formula found the land where pop and R&B meet, and Green was astonishingly successful until he retired from secular music to found his own church in Memphis. It is a retirement from which he has only recently -- and somewhat uncertainly -- emerged. Al Green has bounced back and forth between gospel and pop in the '90s. His most recent album was Love Is Reality for Word in 1993, but he teamed with Lyle Lovett for a duet version of Willie Nelson's "Funny," which was featured on the hit LP Country Rhythm and Blues. ~ Colin Escott