Listen to Al Green's gospel cover of R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts

Al Green in a cinema seat — (Image credit: David Raccuglia)

Legendary soul singer turned pastor Al Green has covered R.E.M.'s 1992 classic Everybody Hurts. Green, who preaches at the Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Memphis, TN, gives the song a typically uplifting spin, complete with swelling organ, strings and a choir.

The track was recorded in Memphis earlier this year and finds Green working with three members of his classic Hi Rhythm Section – organist Reverend Charles Hodges, bassist Leroy Hodges and pianist Archie “Hubbie” Turner/ – as well as guitarist Will Sexton, who's played with Doug Sahm, Joe Ely, Roky Erickson and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and former Booker T & The MG‘s/Gregg Allman drummer Steve Potts. Veteran Stax session man Lester Snell arranged the strings.

"Recording Everybody Hurts, I could really feel the heaviness of the song and I wanted to inject a little touch of hope and light into it," tweets Green. "There’s always a presence of light that can break through those times of darkness.”

"Speaking on behalf of the entire band, we could not be more honoured, more flattered, more humbled," adds R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. "This is an epic moment for us."

Everybody Hurts was released as a single by R.E.M. in 1993, and reached the Top 10 in The UK, Australia, Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands. It's since been covered by artists including Joe Cocker, Australian singer-songwriter Tina Arena, and Tunisian singer MC Rai, who sang an Arabic-language version of the song on the soundtrack to the Sacha Baron Cohen movie The Dictator.

Last year, Green released a cover of Lou Reed's classic Perfect Day.

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.