Songoftheday 1/24/18 - If she is bad he can't see it she can do no wrong, turn his back on his best friend if he puts her down...

"When A Man Loves A Woman" - Michael Bolton
from the album Time, Love and Tenderness (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16

Today's song of the day comes from the king of "soft-rock", Michael Bolton, whose Time, Love and Tenderness album had already spun off two top ten pop hits with "Love Is A Wonderful Thing" and "Time, Love and Tenderness". For the third single from the record Michael went with the sole cover song on the set, a remake of Percy Sledge's soul classic "When A Man Loves A Woman". The original, released in 1966 and written by Calvin Lewis and Martin Wright, went to #1 for two weeks on the pop chart and four weeks on the R&B chart in America...

Bolton's version keeps the vocal phrasing of Sledge's record but fluffs it up with the typical early-90s David Foster-esque lush production (from Walter Afanasieff) but otherwise is a carbon copy...

Bolton's version of "When A Man Loves A Woman" repeated Sledge's success to hit the top of the pop chart in the U.S. in November of 1991. The single also spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart (making three charttoppers in a row from the album). Internationally, the song returned Bolton to the top ten in the UK at #8, as well as in Canada (#4), and reached the top-40 in Ireland (#12), the Netherlands (#17), New Zealand (#21), and Sweden (#34). At the 1992 Grammy Awards, Michael won his second trophy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the record, and at the American Music Awards won for Pop/Rock Male Artist and Pop/Rock album.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Jazz-soul artist Esther Phillips released a regendered version of the song later the same year as Sledge's original, and it climbed to #26 on the R&B chart and #73 on the pop chart...

In 1981, Bette Midler's cover of the song (in its original form) appeared in her movie The Rose and went to #35 on the pop Hot 100...

Three country artists have charted with versions of the classic, but one, from Jack Grayson and Blackjack, did the best, going to #18 on the country chart in 1981, the best of Grayson's career...

Now back to Bolton with a concert clip from 2005...

In 2011, Michael Bolton teamed up with producer David Foster and singer Seal for a medley of "When A Man Loves a Woman" and "It's A Man's Man's Man's World"...

Here's a live TV appearance in Sweden in 2016...

And finally, Michael singing with Percy Sledge himself back in the 90s...

Up tomorrow: It's a different world on the pop charts for this singing actress.