On April 14, after a battle with liver cancer, singer Percy Sledge passed away at the age of 74 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as reported by Rolling Stone after confirmation from his manager Steve Green.

Sledge is most well known for the song "When a Man Loves a Woman," which was written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright. Sledge fronted the band, Esquires Combo, which Lewis and Wright were also a part of.

The song was first recorded by Sledge at FAME Studios, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The track was later re-recorded at Norala Sound Studio, which was in nearby Sheffield, Alabama. 

The song is what catapulted Sledge, as a solo artist, to instant fame after reaching No. 1 in 1966. It was Sledge's pain that really broke through in the song, which resonated with a larger audience and gave him widespread notoriety.

The origin of the song came about after he had lost a construction job and his girl. 

"I didn't have any money to go after her, so there was nothing I could do to try and get her back," he said.

That is when producer Quin Ivy assisted Sledge with a rewrite of the song, which he later credited to his old band mates in the Esquires.

According to CBS News, some of his other hits included "Warm and Tender Love," "Take Time to Know Her" and the 1974 chart-topper "I'll Be Your Everything."

In a 2013 documentary, "Muscle Shoals," Sledge was featured saying, "When I came into the studio, I was shaking like a leaf. I was scared." He noted that it was the "same melody that I sang when I was out in the fields. I just wailed out in the woods and let the echo come back to me," referring to the recording of "When a Man Loves a Woman."

After a surgery for liver cancer in January of 2014, Sledge went right back to touring, which he did nearly all his life after his breakthrough success. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

Sledge is now survived by his wife and children, according to a BBC report.