Let's Stay Together (1972)

Let's Stay Together is the fourth studio album by soul singer Al Green. Released on January 31, 1972, as the follow-up to his moderate success, Al Green Gets Next to You, it was recorded at Royal Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. A commercial success, it peaked at number eight on the pop albums chart and became the first of six consecutive Green albums to peak at number one on the soul album chart, where it held the position for ten straight weeks.

Let's Stay Together is best-known for its title track, "Let's Stay Together", which became Green's signature song and his only number-one pop hit single. The third Green album produced by Willie Mitchell, Let's Stay Together marked the beginning of Green's classic period of critically acclaimed albums.

Critical reaction

The album's appeal was widespread among critics; Rolling Stone noted, "Green's voice is something to marvel at. He can croon, shout, scat, rise to the smoothest falsetto, and throw in the funkiest growls ... Let's Stay Together is, like its predecessor, an indispensable treat."

In 1999, Q wrote that the album "shows him as the authentic voice of love's pain and purity on such wonders as 'How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?'" and that "[H]is cover of the Bee Gees' [song] took the soul ballad to new levels of artistry and refinement."

List rankings

Included in Q's "Best Soul Albums of All Time"

• Ranked No. 335 in the Virgin All-Time top 1000 album list
• Ranked No. 608 in the Guinness top 1000 album poll (1994) and No. 25 in the Top 50 Soul Albums list

Personnel

Rhythm section (the Hi Rhythm Section)

• Howard Grimes – drums
• Al Jackson Jr. – drums
• Leroy Hodges – bass guitar
• Charles Hodges – organ, piano
• Teenie Hodges – guitar
• Horn section
• Wayne Jackson – trumpet
• Andrew Love – horn, tenor saxophone
• Ed Logan – horn, tenor saxophone
• James Mitchell – bass, baritone saxophone, arrangements
• Jack Hale, Sr. – trombone
• Vocals
• Al Green – vocals
• Charles Chalmers, Donna Rhodes, Sandra Rhodes – background vocals, arrangements
• Additional personnel
• Willie Mitchell – producer, engineer
• Willie Mitchell & Terry Manning – mixing engineers
• Peter Rynston – mastering engineer
• Jools DeVere – artwork
• Bud Lee – photography