Composition
"A Natural Man", at 3 minutes and 37 seconds long, has a tempo of 112 beats per minute. It is generally in the key of A sharp / B flat major, but the song alternates between different keys.
The song is about the narrator's dissatisfaction with conforming to societal norms of "working 50 years from 9 to 5", "doing something you're told to do with no questions asked", "going along with the program", and "fitting in [and] faking it," as opposed to "[being] happy and free, living and loving for [you]", and "taking life into [your] own hands and making [your] own choices", which he considers to be a "natural man's" way of living. [2]
The medium-paced R&B song, driven largely by piano and horns, opens up with a 35-second spoken word passage. Backing vocals are handled by the Mike Curb Congregation.
"A Natural Man" was a sleeper hit, having been released in May 1971, and debuting on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 for the week of August 14, [3] two weeks before reaching the main Hot 100 at number 86, where it went on to peak at number 17 and chart for a total of eighteen weeks—chart statistics that made it likely to have appeared on the 1971 year-end list, had it not spilled over the projected cutoff in November. [4]
The song was met with a largely positive critical reception. Billboard called it a "potent blues swinger with a clever lyric line [that] should hit hard fast," [5] and Cashbox wrote of it, "Rawls coasts into another fine outing with this top 40/blues/M.O.R. shot [that] echoes the talk-intro of his 'Dead End Street' giant." [6] RPM described the song and its respective album as "very M.O.R.-ish [and] soft-edged [with a] change of pace and restrained production [that] will introduce Rawls to a new public," and "good programming and nifty sales potential". [7]
Bill Kohlhaase of Los Angeles Times wrote that the song is "filled with a warm expressiveness, spiced with volume dramatics and the occasional growled line", and additionally highlighted its "seductive dialogue, which would've made Barry White proud." [8] In a MusicRadar interview, the song was endorsed by Carol Kaye, who called it "one of [her] 10 greatest recordings," and said of it, “This is just a funky tune, a really good feeling. That’s Earl Palmer on the drums. He got a good groove going on, and I locked in with him like you wouldn't believe. And everybody knows, you can’t beat Lou’s voice. He could make any song his own. What a special artist." [9] Washington newspaper The Spokesman-Review called the song "socially conscious". [10]
At the 14th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won Rawls the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. [11] Liza Minnelli covered the song for her 1974 album Live at the Winter Garden , and the Dirtbombs for their 2005 compilation album If You Don't Already Have a Look .
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