Al Green’s extraordinary voice became known to the world through a string of legendary hits in the early 1960s, classics including “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “I’m Still in Love With You,” “Call Me,” “Here I Am,” “Let’s Get Married” and “Love and Happiness.” Recorded in Memphis with producer and arranger Willie Mitchell at Mitchell’s Royal Recording Studios, those songs – and Green’s falsetto screams, impassioned whispers, ecstatic cries and choked shouts – are etched into the minds of music fans everywhere.

Green started singing professionally at age nine when he and his brothers formed a gospel quartet, the Greene Brothers, in their hometown of Forest City, Ark. (Green dropped the final “e” from his surname when he went solo.) They toured the gospel circuits in the South then began performing around Michigan when the family relocated to Grand Rapids. At age 16, Green formed a pop group, Al Greene and the Creations, with his high school friends, and the group released the single “Back Up Train” in 1967 (under the new name Al Greene and the Soul Mates) that went to No. 5 on the national R&B chart.

Green and Willie Mitchell’s historic meeting took place in 1969, soon after Green decided to go solo. Mitchell – by then a renowned bandleader, arranger and trumpeter – hired the young singer to front his band for a gig in Midland, Texas, and hearing something special, approached Green after the show. Mitchell soon signed Green to Hi Records and began recording him at Royal – arranging, producing and engineering the sessions himself. More importantly, Mitchell personally coached Green, pushing him to find his own unique voice.

Indeed, Green and Mitchell collaborated to shape a sound that defines its own place in pop and R&B music. They recorded eight albums that sold over 20 million copies worldwide, working together until 1976. At that time, Green changed his focus to gospel music, founding his own congregation in Memphis – the Full Gospel Tabernacle, where he still preaches regularly – and recording a series of albums that have earned him eight Grammys in gospel categories.