New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The legendary Al Green, a longtime writer signed to Rondor Music, will be among five individuals who will be 2014 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors at the 37th annual national celebration of the arts held this December 7.
Each year, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts recognizes outstanding individuals for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts—whether in music, dance, theater, opera, motion pictures, or television.
Al Green will receive the award along with actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks, ballerina
Patricia McBride, singer-songwriter Sting, and comedienne Lily Tomlin. Seated with the President of the United States and Mrs. Obama, the honorees will accept the thanks of their peers through performances and tributes. The gala will be nationally broadcast on CBS on December 30, 2014 at 9:00-11:00 p.m., ET/PT.
Al Green has sold more than 20 million albums, won 11 Grammys, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2002 Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone ranked him as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Al Green embodies the
Memphis Sound—funky soul music, shimmering and sultry in its style, a perfect blend of the spiritual and profane. Throughout his career,Green straddled the line of sacred and secular, being inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Gospel
Music Hall of Fame.
One of the 1970's most popular vocalists,
Al Green was born to a family of sharecroppers in Forrest City, Arkansas. Singing gospel was a part of his life from an early age as he toured the gospel circuits of the Southwith the Greene Brothers, a quartet he formed with his siblings. Later transitioning from gospel to pop, he formed Al Greene and the Creations when he was only 16. But it was in Midland, Texas, in 1969 where Green met his most important music collaborator, Willie Mitchell. The bandleader, producer and a vice president of Memphis's Hi Records signed Green, leading to his first single, a cover of the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Mitchell became Green's producer and songwriting partner for the next eight years.
Green's first gold single, "Tired of Being Alone," reached No. 11 on the pop charts and No. 7 on the R&B charts in 1971. Green's next hit single "Let's Stay Together" was part of a three-year string of gold singles, including the soul classics "You Ought to Be with Me," "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," and "Take Me to the River." Green felt a different calling in the mid-70s; he purchased a church building in 1976 and was ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church. However, Green continued to pursue his pop career, preaching at his church only when he was not on tour. Gospel label Myrrh released his1980s religious recordings featuring standard hymns and Green's originals—a style that mixes
Memphis soul with gospel.
He wouldn't stay away from the
Memphis soul sound of his roots for good, returning with the 1992 recording Don't Look Back. Willie Mitchell and the soul singer reunited on 2003's I Can't Stop, working together for the first time in 18 years. At the age of 62, Green released Lay It Down in 2008, produced by Green, Poyser, and the Roots' Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. The album featured duets with artists such as John Legend, Corrine Bailey Rae and Anthony Hamilton.
