Al Green had one of his biggest songs almost by accident.
“Let’s Stay Together,” first released as a single in 1971, became a major turning point in Green’s career. The song later reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for one week in February 1972. It also reached the top of the R&B chart and became Green’s only song to reach No. 1 on the pop chart.
At Royal Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, producer Willie Mitchell was working on a musical arrangement with drummer Al Jackson Jr. Mitchell had already been guiding Green’s career at Hi Records, but Green had not yet reached the pop Top 10, per Ultimate Classic Rock.
When Mitchell presented the developing track to Green, the singer was not immediately convinced. Green took about 15 minutes to write the lyrics. The music already had its basic shape, while Green supplied the words and vocal idea. But getting the final recording right took much longer.
Mitchell recalled that Green needed time to find the right way to sing the song. At that point in his career, Green was still trying to sing with the power of performers such as Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett.
Mitchell wanted something different.
Green remembered Mitchell telling him, “Don’t try to handle the song, Al. Just let the song happen – just let it happen. Just let it ooze out.”
That advice became important to the recording. Instead of pushing his voice, Green gradually found a softer and more personal sound.
The recording process was far slower than the writing. Mitchell said it took “100 and some hours to put the song on tape.” The producer kept asking Green to stop trying to sound like other singers and simply use his own voice.
“I was trying to sing like Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett,” Green later told The New York Times. “He said, ‘Sing like Al Green.’”
The breakthrough came when Green finally delivered the vocal Mitchell wanted.
“I wanted this golden voice on it, and he kept giving me somebody else’s voice,” Mitchell told NPR. “And that’s why we kept going over and over and over and over again. When he nailed it, I said, ‘That’s the one.’”
Another important part of the recording was the microphone.
Mitchell had tested different microphones for Green’s voice. He eventually found the sound he wanted with an RCA 77DX ribbon microphone, which he marked as No. 9.
The microphone was sensitive enough to pick up the small details in Green’s performance, including his softer sounds and changes in pitch. That helped create the intimate vocal style heard on “Let’s Stay Together.”
Green explained the difference he felt while using the microphone in Mitchell’s studio.
“I’m not learned in sound, but I know that we got some magic going,” Green told The New Yorker. He described singing the song and hearing Mitchell respond, “Now, that’s what Al Green sounds like. Damn.”
The finished recording was released as a single in 1971 and later became the title track of Green’s January 1972 album, Let’s Stay Together.
According to Billboard, Green has one No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. That song is “Let’s Stay Together.” It reached the top after entering the chart in late 1971 and remained on the Hot 100 for 16 weeks overall.
The song also became a major R&B success, spending nine weeks at No. 1 on the R&B chart.
The success helped establish Green as one of the leading soul singers of the early 1970s. His next releases continued to perform strongly, including “I’m Still in Love With You,” “Look What You Done for Me” and “You Ought to Be With Me.”
Green’s original recording continued to receive major recognition decades after its release. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2010 for its cultural, historical or aesthetic significance.
The song has also appeared in films, including Pulp Fiction and Hellboy. Its place in popular culture has kept the 1971 recording familiar to new generations.
The path from a Tennessee recording studio to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 began with a simple arrangement and lyrics written in about 15 minutes.
Related: 1975 Rock Song, Recorded in Munich, Is Still a Powerful Hit 51 Years Later
