Do we really want to hear an elderly church minister sing a song blissfully unaware that it celebrates the pleasures of heroin? Well yes, it turns out we do.

Having foolishly turned down an opportunity to interview Al Green – and attend one of his church services in Memphis – in the early 1990s, I have yet to forgive myself.

He has one of the greatest voices of all time, and back in the day in the early 1970s he wrote and sang at least four of the greatest soul songs ever – Tired Of Being Alone, Let’s Stay Together, Take Me To The River and I’m Still In Love With You.

He didn’t handle success well, especially when it came to women, and violence, and it was probably a good thing when he decided to dedicate his life – and music – to God and became a church minister.

But if you were to ask me if I’d like to hear Al coming out of retirement to sing Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, I would hesitate. But it works: even though (or possible because) I don’t believe Al has a clue what Lou Reed’s song was originally about.

“I loved Lou’s original Perfect Day,” he says. “The song immediately puts you in a good mood. We wanted to preserve that spirit, while adding our own sauce and style.”

I rest my case.

But never mind. There’s a rich tradition of this sort of thing; most notably Johnny Cash’s reinterpretation of Hurt, another song about heroin by Nine Inch Nails that translates just as effectively (for obvious reasons) as a song about being old and tired and close to death.

It’s not Al’s first return to secular music: in 1995 he made a massively underrated album called Your Heart’s In Good Hands, on which the British duo of Andy Cox and David Steele – the musical part of the Fine Young Cannibals – recreated the sound of those early classics for Hi Records.

Perfect Day features members of the classic Hi Rhythm Section from the 1970s – musicians like Reverend Charles Hodges [organ], Leroy Hodges [bass], and Archie “Hubbie” Turner [piano] – who played on those early hits, recorded at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis.

Adding new blood to the mix, the single also features our very own up-and-coming RnB singer RAYE on backing vocals and a call-and-response finale with Green as they take turns, over lush cinematic strings, organ and guitar, to sing Reed’s ominous promise (or threat, depending on your interpretation): “You’re gonna reap just what you sow.”