Al Green Explores Your Mind
About this Album
Released in October 1974 on Hi Records, Al Green Explores Your Mind was Al Green's eighth studio album and the fifth in a row to top the Billboard Soul Albums chart, peaking at number 15 on the Pop Albums chart overall.
It was recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis with longtime producer Willie Mitchell, backed by the Hi Rhythm Section: guitarist Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, bassist Leroy Hodges, organist Charles Hodges, and drummer Howard Grimes, along with the Memphis Horns and Memphis Strings. The lead single, "Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)," reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.
The album also included "Take Me to the River," co-written by Green and Teenie Hodges during a three-day writing retreat at Lake Hamilton, Arkansas. Though never released as a single by Green himself, the track went on to become one of his most covered and critically celebrated recordings, later ranked among Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs of all time and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Critics received the album warmly at the time, with AllMusic and Rolling Stone both awarding four-star reviews and Robert Christgau grading it a B+. Some retrospective assessments have described it as looser and more eclectic than the tightly focused run of classics that preceded it, marking a subtle turning point as Green and Mitchell began moving beyond the formula that had defined their earlier hits.