Al Green (musician)

:For the Democratic Congressman from Texas and the former head of the Houston NAACP, please see Al Green.

Early years

Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. The son of a sharecropper, he started out at age nine in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "e" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. He was kicked out of the group by his father because he was caught listening to Jackie Wilson.

Related Topics:
Forrest City, Arkansas - Sharecropper - 1950s - Grand Rapids, Michigan - Jackie Wilson

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Green formed a group called Al Greene & the Creations in high school. Curtis Rogers and Palmer James, two members of the Creations, formed an independent label called Hot Line Music Journal. The band, now known as the Soul Mates, recorded "Back Up Train" and released it on Hot Line Music; the song was an R&B chart hit. The Soul Mates' subsequent singles did not sell as well. Green came into contact with bandleader Willie Mitchell of Memphis' Hi Records in 1969, when Mitchell had hired him as a vocalist for a Texas show with Mitchell's band and then asked him to sign with the label.

Related Topics:
Willie Mitchell - Memphis - Hi Records - 1969

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