 Soul artist James Carr, as promised, first recorded the song in late 1966, and it became his trademark song, reaching number 10 on "Billboard Magazine's" Black Singles Chart, and crossing over to number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100.Six months later fellow soul singer Percy Sledge included his version of the song on his 1967 album "The Percy Sledge Way", but it did not chart as high.Van Morrison's song "Bright Side of the Road" includes the lyrics "From the dark end of the street, to the bright side of the road," which some people believe was influenced by Penn and Moman's song.