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Percy Sledge (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

The intense, gospel-influenced voice that propelled "When a Man Loves a Woman," one of popular music's landmark ballads, is now silent.

Singer Percy Sledge, 74, died around 12 a.m. Tuesday of natural causes, at his Baton Rouge home according an Associated Press report indicating Sledge was under hospice care at the time.

East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. William "Beau" Clark confirmed Sledge's death to the AP.

Sledge was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. He is also a member of Alabama and Louisiana music hall of fames.

Long before "When a Man Loves a Woman" found common placement in TV, films, slow dances, jeans commercials and that cringe-inducing Michael Bolton cover version, the song was a 1966 number one hit for Sledge. And the first number one for both Atlantic Records and Muscle Shoals recording.

Contrary to popular belief, "When a Man Loves a Woman" was cut at Sheffield's Norala Sound Studio and not FAME Studios. FAME mastermind Rick Hall assisted in Atlantic's licensing of the song, which established a relationship facilitating many of the labels artists, including Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James and Rolling Stones, to later record in Muscle Shoals.

Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright are credited as writers for "When Man Loves a Woman." However, Sledge told the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the melody dated back much further than that February 1966 recording session. "I hummed it all my life, even when I was picking and chopping cotton in the fields," Sledge told the Rock Hall.

The singer reportedly improvised the lyrics to "When Man Loves a Woman" during a performance at a University of Mississippi fraternity party. The words were inspired by a real-life romantic set-back - some stories say Sledge had been dumped for another guy, others for a modeling career. The tune was originally titled "Why Did You Leave Me, Baby?" In a decision that cost probably cost him millions, Sledge gave "When a Man Loves a Woman" songwriting credit to two members of his pre-solo band the Esquires, bassist Lewis and organist Wright, who helped compose the musical arrangement.

In later years, Sledge was beseiged by tax problems and liver cancer but continued to perform into 2014.

The Leighton native's other hits included "Warm and Tender Love,""It Tears Me Up," "Take Time to Know Her," "Cover Me" and "I'll Be Your Everything."

Sledge appeared in "Muscle Shoals," the 2013 documentary film celebrating that North Alabama community'e rich musical heritage. Which the singer played a central role in igniting almost 50 years earlier.