Al Green & The Soul Mates — “Keep Me Cryin’”

Entered Top 40: December 18, 1976 
4 weeks 
Peaked at: 37

We haven’t had to deal with art vs. artist issues too much (yet). Al Green made some absolutely beautiful music in the early ’70s, while being a terrible person. He famously walked away from secular music for a time, becoming a minister; given a dim view of religion I don’t see that as a free pass, but that’s the redemption narrative that’s been built up.

So I don’t have a lot of patience with this song about how the people, or The Man, or whomever, give poor Al such a hard time and they should let him be. It’s still a bop, as the kids say; “Perfect to do my housework to,” per one of the YouTube commenters.

This would be Al Green’s last Top 40 appearance for quite some time. At this point he was starting to wind down his secular music career and build up a ministry; he’d record two more secular albums before cutting his first gospel LP in 1980. Green wouldn’t come back to pop until 1988, with the I Get Joy album, as well as a Top 10 duet with Annie Lennox from the Scrooged soundtrack.