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1. Write your name as the title.                                                 2. How would you describe the music?                              3. How does it make you feel? Do you like it?      

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1. Write your name as the title.                                                 2. How would you describe the music?                              3. How does it make you feel? Do you like it?      

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Search on YouTube for a video of Bill Withers to add here. Or you post an interesting fact you learned about him!

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Search on YouTube for a video of Bill Withers to add here. Or you post an interesting fact you learned about him!

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Bill Withers didn't start recording music till he was in his 30's.

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he was a songwriter from 1938/2020

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he has a few huge songs.

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The soul legend on songwriting, stuttering and why he has no plans to return to music.

It made him wealthy. More than 250 artists have recorded a cover version and it has earned royalties from television adverts all over the world. Amazingly, Sunshine was originally released in July 1971 as the B-side of his debut single, Harlem. Fortunately, radio DJs flipped the disc and the song climbed to No3 on the US chart and spent a total of 16 weeks in the top 40.

Meanwhile, the anthemic Lean On Me refuses to age and if anyone has written a more chilling declaration of self-annihilating desire than Use Me, I have yet to hear it. The Withers oeuvre also extends to include co-writing credits on other great tunes, like the brooding blues of Who Is He (And What Is He To You)? and the golden MOR staple Lovely Day. Perhaps his talent is best summed up by Sting: 'The hardest thing in songwriting is to be simple and yet profound. And Bill seemed to understand, intrinsically and instinctively, how to do that.'

He's polite but taciturn, uttering pithy statements punctuated with a defiant stare. I ask where he got the inspiration for his most memorable songs. 'If I knew how to explain songwriting,' he says, 'I would write a bestselling book. If that's what you do, that's what you are. You are that.'

Is he still making music? 'Not really that much. That kind of stuff, to me, was a lot more interesting at 35 than at 71 years of age. I'm not motivated to wanna draw attention to myself or travel all over the place. There was a time for that. When it was done it was done. Now it's something else.'

Born in 1938 in the segregated coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Withers was the youngest of six children and only 13 when his father died. His maternal grandfather, Grackus Monroe Galloway, had been born into slavery. As a boy he would attend church with his grandmother, Lula. 'It was spontaneous singing, there was nothing programmed. People got up and sang and everybody would join in. It was my favourite kind of singing.'

His school days were conditioned by asthma and a severe stutter, which one of his teachers told him was a sign that he was 'handicapped'. The closest he got to therapy was being slapped in the face with a dishcloth in an attempt to 'beat the stutter out of him'. Not surprisingly he was desperate to leave and at 18 he enlisted with the US Navy for nine years, travelling the world and learning mechanical skills.

After leaving the navy, he relocated to LA, frequenting nightclubs in order 'to meet girls', he says. 'I wasn't particularly interested in music, though I sat up when it was Lou Rawls or Little Willie John. Then one night this guy behind the bar was moaning that the performer was late and he said, "You know, I'm paying this guy $2,000 a week and he can't even show up on time!"' Earning $100 a week at this point, Withers realised he was in the wrong business. 'I thought, "They're paying this guy $2,000 a week? He doesn't even get up in the morning!"'

Withers is vague on what happened next, saying he 'probably started singing in the shower or something, to see if it was something I could do'. By the time he had got himself a guitar, locked himself in his apartment to teach himself to play and written his first songs, he was working at an aeroplane assembly plant. Saving money from his weekly pay, he scoured the backs of album covers to find the right session musicians, then paid for demo recordings, which he shopped around in the hope of a record deal.

His break came when the small independent Sussex label agreed to pay for an album and hired Booker T Jones to produce, who drafted his ace session band, The MG's, for the sessions. He was the sympathetic professional that the raw but talented Withers needed.

It's a mark of Withers' no-nonsense practicality that even after Ain't No Sunshine was released he refused to quit his job. 'I had been working at Weber Aircraft and then I got laid off. Then Ain't No Sunshine started appearing on the radio. And it's funny, I got two requests in the same day. A letter from my job, telling me I was called back to work. And a request to do The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.' He chose the television appearance.

These days he likes to pretend it was no big deal, that his unique approach to songwriting was almost accidental. But in the early Seventies he was less guarded. 'I would like to say something that has not been said so much,' he told Carson. 'I would like for music to be real for a change.'

It's a point that still rankles. 'In my lifetime, music went through a huge transition, to where the biggest music in the world was derivative. White people imitating black people. Some journalist got really insulted a while back, because he asked if Elvis had influenced me.' And what did you say? 'Hell, no! To do what?'

Well, I say, at the time there was a lot of hype about African-American artists discovering their roots. He chuckles. 'Awwww, come on, man. It wasn't a great historical moment. Interesting, but that was that. No great spiritual experience. Mostly what everybody found out was: we had been shaped and transformed by American culture and the history we had here, and they had been shaped by whoever colonised their place. They weren't speaking any African languages. We were speaking English and they were speaking French. How African is that?'

But the real moment of truth comes after he travels to New York to visit a music festival where his songs are being performed in tribute and to receive an award from Our Time, a charitable organisation working with young people who have speech impediments.

At a reception in his honour, after children perform a song for him, Withers wipes away tears. He tells them how somebody recently laughed at him when he started stuttering, and says, 'One of the ways to deal with the fear is to approach people with a prepared forgiveness. We have to be more civil than most people that we will encounter. Having had people not understand me, maybe made me wait a little beat to where I can extend something that hasn't been given to me. And I think that makes you a much bigger person.'

I ask why he no longer stutters. 'I probably do, depending on the situation.' But he hasn't stuttered here, so how did he undo his speech impediment, or most of it? 'Well, I thought about it. And it's not a physical handicap because you don't stutter in certain circumstances. I came to the conclusion that it was a fear of the perception of the listener. Having too high an opinion of other people and too low an opinion of yourself.'

What was his technique for doing that? 'There was no technique. Once you come to that conclusion, you try to get your opinion of others in a more realistic place.' Not so much a technique as awareness of the disparity? 'That is the technique. Most techniques are an awareness.' How old was he when he came to that conclusion? 'Almost 30 years old. And still it leaks in from time to time. The idea is to minimise it.'

As if to prove the point, he then stutters for the first time, saying, 'I've given a c-c-c-commencement speech in a college and I wouldn't want to stutter in that situation.'

At one point in the film, he says, 'If I was completely honest with myself, I'm probably a little manic depressive. That's why I might write some songs that might reach somebody else's emotions, because I have my own.'

According to his devoted wife and business partner, Marcia, Withers has been writing and recording songs, but for some reason won't put together an album and search out a record deal.

When I say that millions of people would love to see him perform those classic tunes, he says, 'Yeah, and if I wasn't very good, they'd tear into me. And I don't need that.'

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The soul legend on songwriting, stuttering and why he has no plans to return to music. It made him wealthy. More than 250 artists have recorded a cover version and it has earned royalties from television adverts all over the world. Amazingly, Sunshine was originally released in July 1971 as the B-side of his debut single, Harlem.

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Lean on Me - Bill Withers (Lyrics) RIP 💔

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The soul legend on songwriting, stuttering and why he has no plans to return to music.

It made him wealthy. More than 250 artists have recorded a cover version and it has earned royalties from television adverts all over the world. Amazingly, Sunshine was originally released in July 1971 as the B-side of his debut single, Harlem. Fortunately, radio DJs flipped the disc and the song climbed to No3 on the US chart and spent a total of 16 weeks in the top 40.

Meanwhile, the anthemic Lean On Me refuses to age and if anyone has written a more chilling declaration of self-annihilating desire than Use Me, I have yet to hear it. The Withers oeuvre also extends to include co-writing credits on other great tunes, like the brooding blues of Who Is He (And What Is He To You)? and the golden MOR staple Lovely Day. Perhaps his talent is best summed up by Sting: 'The hardest thing in songwriting is to be simple and yet profound. And Bill seemed to understand, intrinsically and instinctively, how to do that.'

He's polite but taciturn, uttering pithy statements punctuated with a defiant stare. I ask where he got the inspiration for his most memorable songs. 'If I knew how to explain songwriting,' he says, 'I would write a bestselling book. If that's what you do, that's what you are. You are that.'

Is he still making music? 'Not really that much. That kind of stuff, to me, was a lot more interesting at 35 than at 71 years of age. I'm not motivated to wanna draw attention to myself or travel all over the place. There was a time for that. When it was done it was done. Now it's something else.'

Born in 1938 in the segregated coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Withers was the youngest of six children and only 13 when his father died. His maternal grandfather, Grackus Monroe Galloway, had been born into slavery. As a boy he would attend church with his grandmother, Lula. 'It was spontaneous singing, there was nothing programmed. People got up and sang and everybody would join in. It was my favourite kind of singing.'

His school days were conditioned by asthma and a severe stutter, which one of his teachers told him was a sign that he was 'handicapped'. The closest he got to therapy was being slapped in the face with a dishcloth in an attempt to 'beat the stutter out of him'. Not surprisingly he was desperate to leave and at 18 he enlisted with the US Navy for nine years, travelling the world and learning mechanical skills.

After leaving the navy, he relocated to LA, frequenting nightclubs in order 'to meet girls', he says. 'I wasn't particularly interested in music, though I sat up when it was Lou Rawls or Little Willie John. Then one night this guy behind the bar was moaning that the performer was late and he said, "You know, I'm paying this guy $2,000 a week and he can't even show up on time!"' Earning $100 a week at this point, Withers realised he was in the wrong business. 'I thought, "They're paying this guy $2,000 a week? He doesn't even get up in the morning!"'

Withers is vague on what happened next, saying he 'probably started singing in the shower or something, to see if it was something I could do'. By the time he had got himself a guitar, locked himself in his apartment to teach himself to play and written his first songs, he was working at an aeroplane assembly plant. Saving money from his weekly pay, he scoured the backs of album covers to find the right session musicians, then paid for demo recordings, which he shopped around in the hope of a record deal.

His break came when the small independent Sussex label agreed to pay for an album and hired Booker T Jones to produce, who drafted his ace session band, The MG's, for the sessions. He was the sympathetic professional that the raw but talented Withers needed.

It's a mark of Withers' no-nonsense practicality that even after Ain't No Sunshine was released he refused to quit his job. 'I had been working at Weber Aircraft and then I got laid off. Then Ain't No Sunshine started appearing on the radio. And it's funny, I got two requests in the same day. A letter from my job, telling me I was called back to work. And a request to do The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.' He chose the television appearance.

These days he likes to pretend it was no big deal, that his unique approach to songwriting was almost accidental. But in the early Seventies he was less guarded. 'I would like to say something that has not been said so much,' he told Carson. 'I would like for music to be real for a change.'

It's a point that still rankles. 'In my lifetime, music went through a huge transition, to where the biggest music in the world was derivative. White people imitating black people. Some journalist got really insulted a while back, because he asked if Elvis had influenced me.' And what did you say? 'Hell, no! To do what?'

Well, I say, at the time there was a lot of hype about African-American artists discovering their roots. He chuckles. 'Awwww, come on, man. It wasn't a great historical moment. Interesting, but that was that. No great spiritual experience. Mostly what everybody found out was: we had been shaped and transformed by American culture and the history we had here, and they had been shaped by whoever colonised their place. They weren't speaking any African languages. We were speaking English and they were speaking French. How African is that?'

But the real moment of truth comes after he travels to New York to visit a music festival where his songs are being performed in tribute and to receive an award from Our Time, a charitable organisation working with young people who have speech impediments.

At a reception in his honour, after children perform a song for him, Withers wipes away tears. He tells them how somebody recently laughed at him when he started stuttering, and says, 'One of the ways to deal with the fear is to approach people with a prepared forgiveness. We have to be more civil than most people that we will encounter. Having had people not understand me, maybe made me wait a little beat to where I can extend something that hasn't been given to me. And I think that makes you a much bigger person.'

I ask why he no longer stutters. 'I probably do, depending on the situation.' But he hasn't stuttered here, so how did he undo his speech impediment, or most of it? 'Well, I thought about it. And it's not a physical handicap because you don't stutter in certain circumstances. I came to the conclusion that it was a fear of the perception of the listener. Having too high an opinion of other people and too low an opinion of yourself.'

What was his technique for doing that? 'There was no technique. Once you come to that conclusion, you try to get your opinion of others in a more realistic place.' Not so much a technique as awareness of the disparity? 'That is the technique. Most techniques are an awareness.' How old was he when he came to that conclusion? 'Almost 30 years old. And still it leaks in from time to time. The idea is to minimise it.'

As if to prove the point, he then stutters for the first time, saying, 'I've given a c-c-c-commencement speech in a college and I wouldn't want to stutter in that situation.'

At one point in the film, he says, 'If I was completely honest with myself, I'm probably a little manic depressive. That's why I might write some songs that might reach somebody else's emotions, because I have my own.'

According to his devoted wife and business partner, Marcia, Withers has been writing and recording songs, but for some reason won't put together an album and search out a record deal.

When I say that millions of people would love to see him perform those classic tunes, he says, 'Yeah, and if I wasn't very good, they'd tear into me. And I don't need that.'

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The soul legend on songwriting, stuttering and why he has no plans to return to music. It made him wealthy. More than 250 artists have recorded a cover version and it has earned royalties from television adverts all over the world. Amazingly, Sunshine was originally released in July 1971 as the B-side of his debut single, Harlem.

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When he was growing up in Beckley, West Virginia, the only music the three-time Grammy winner Bill Withers was exposed to was "in the church." But, he says, "When you have a facility for music, you know right away, when you're born, I guess." It would be several decades before Withers acknowledged that gift, re-embracing his hymn-honed voice and unleashing his natural inclination for arrow-sharp lyricism on such indispensable tracks as "Ain't No Sunshine," "Lean on Me," and "Use Me," high points of a career that lasted only fifteen years but whose legacy endures. Withers, who withdrew from the public eye to focus on his family in the mid-1980s, will finally be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. Now seventy-six, he's pleased at the recognition, though hardly inclined to gloat. "Pride goeth before the great fall," he says jokingly. Besides, he continues, "the induction could have happened or could not have happened. Either way, I was going to have to keep living."
You came to music late in life.
I was a severe stutterer until I was about thirty. In a rural area like where I was from, when you stutter, people don't think you're very bright.
Your hometown in West Virginia had around two hundred residents.
Everything was based around the coal mines. I knew that to do anything I wanted to do, I needed to leave. I would go to the movies and see other places. As soon as I was old enough-before I was even shaving-I joined the navy.
You were in the military for nine years, some of that stationed in Pensacola, Florida, in the 1950s and 1960s. What was that time in the South like for you?
It was more or less surviving. Let's face it, when I was coming along, the likelihood of me being able to do much was slim. I mean, in those days the South didn't have great plans for guys like me [ laughs].
In 1967 you left the navy and moved to California, where you fell into the music business.
I had ninety days to reenlist or not. And I thought about it. Do I want to try to take on this world? I hadn't been a civilian since I was a kid. Am I ready to take this chance? And I said yes to overcome the fear of finding out. There was something dormant in me. I knew it was there whether anybody else did or not.
What was the tipping point?
I would fool around up in San Jose. If I had a couple drinks, I'd sit in with the band. And they'd drop little seeds in my head. I remember in Oakland I went to see Lou Rawls and I heard the guy behind the bar say he was paying him $2,000 a week. I thought, That's interesting. I think I was making $3.25 an hour at the time. So I went home and told my mother I was going to become a singer-songwriter.
Did you know you had what it takes?
I think maybe you know that long before anybody else does. Or you think you do. Now, there are a lot of people who think they have it that don't. But everything in life boils down to this riddle: Are you what you think you are? The world will let you know whether you are a keeper or just recreational.
In a short time span, you wrote and recorded several indelible songs. Then, in 1985, you walked away from it all. That choice seems to vex a lot of folks.
Yeah, well, that's their problem [ laughs]. The music business was no piece of cake. There was this guy at my record label who wanted me to do stuff like cover Elvis Presley songs [ snorts]. Get the hell out of here. I got tired of it. Most of my dreams came true and some of my nightmares, too. I had a pretty good run. And by then I had a family and some kids, so I went about trying to do a good job at that. Without even thinking about it, I just went ahead with my life.
Do you have regrets?
Everybody's got regrets. The trick is not to spend a lot of time thinking about them.
You may have stepped out of circulation, but your music never did.
People kept recording my songs. They worked on their own. I became more popular as time wore on. I could play a larger venue now than when I was making music all the time.
And now you're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The induction is a compliment. I'm not ambivalent. I'm actually looking forward to it. But I'm not a jump-up-and-down kind of guy. If I go to a football game, I sit there and watch it. I'm not waving my arms and carrying on. It doesn't mean I don't feel something, you know. I feel it's healthier to look out at the world through a window rather than through a mirror. With a mirror, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you.

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Catching Up With Bill Withers - Garden & Gun

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When he was growing up in Beckley, West Virginia, the only music the three-time Grammy winner Bill Withers was exposed to was "in the church." But, he says, "When you have a facility for music, you know right away, when you're born, I guess."

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Bills dad died when Bill was 13

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William Harrison "Bill" Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 - March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He recorded several major hits, including " Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), " Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (1972), " Lean on Me" (1972), " Lovely Day" (1977), and " Just the Two of Us" (1981). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film . He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Two of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Withers worked as a professional musician for just 15 years, from 1970 to 1985, after which he moved on to other occupations.[citation needed ]

Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, on July 4, 1938. He was the son of Mattie (Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. He was born with a stutter and later said he had a hard time fitting in. His parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised by his mother's family in nearby Beckley, West Virginia. He was 13 years old when his father died. Withers enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17, and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs.

He left the Navy in 1965, relocating to Los Angeles in 1967 to start a music career. His debut release was "Three Nights and a Morning" in 1967. Arranged by Mort Garson, the song went unnoticed at the time but was later reworked by Withers as the track "Harlem".

Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, IBM and Ford, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he returned with the song " Ain't No Sunshine" in 1971, he refused to resign from his job because he believed the music business was a fickle industry.

Music career

Withers continued to work on his musicianship, learning guitar.

Sussex Records

In early 1970, Withers's demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and " Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch box.

The album was a success, and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for " Ain't No Sunshine" at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972. The track had already sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in September 1971.

During a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, . The single, " Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972. It was Withers's second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million. His follow-up, " Use Me" released in August 1972, became his third million seller, with the R.I.A.A. gold disc award taking place on October 12, 1972. His performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, 1972, was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1972. In 1974, Withers recorded the album Due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter.

During this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips album I Feel a Song, and in October 1974 performed in concert together with James Brown, Etta James, and B.B. King in Zaire four weeks prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, and he is heard on the accompanying soundtrack. Other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film .

Columbia Records

After Sussex Records folded, Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975. His first album release with the label, Making Music, included the single "She's Lonely", which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar along with "She Wants to (Get on Down)". During the next three years he released an album each year with (1976), (1977; containing the successful " Lovely Day"), and (1978).

Due to problems with Columbia and being unable to get songs approved for his album, he concentrated on joint projects from 1977 to 1985, including " Just the Two of Us", with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., which was released during June 1980. The song won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. Withers next released "Soul Shadows" with the Crusaders, and "In the Name of Love" with Ralph MacDonald, the latter being nominated for a Grammy for vocal performance.

In 1982, Withers was a featured vocalist on the album Dreams in Stone by French singer Michel Berger. This record included one composition co-written and sung by Withers, an upbeat disco song about New York City entitled "Apple Pie".

In 1985 came Watching You, Watching Me, which featured the Top 40-rated R&B single "Oh Yeah!", and ended Withers's business association with Columbia Records. Withers stated in interviews that a lot of the songs approved for the album, in particular, two of the first three singles released, were the same songs which were rejected in 1982, hence contributing significantly to the eight-year hiatus between albums. Withers also stated it was frustrating seeing his record label release an album for Mr. T, an actor, when they were preventing him, an actual singer, from releasing his own. He toured with Jennifer Holliday in 1985 to promote what would be his final studio album.

His disdain for Columbia's A&R executives or "blaxperts", as he termed them, trying to exert control over how he should sound if he wanted to sell more albums, played a part in his decision to not record or re-sign to a record label after 1985, effectively ending his performing career, even though remixes of his previously recorded music were released well after his 'retirement'. Finding musical success later in life than most, at 32, he said he was socialized as a 'regular guy' who had a life before the music, so he did not feel an inherent need to keep recording once he fell out of love with the industry. After he left the music industry he said that he did not miss touring and performing live and did not regret leaving music behind.

Post-Columbia career

In 1988, a new version of "Lovely Day" from the 1977 Menagerie album, entitled "Lovely Day (Sunshine Mix)" and remixed by Ben Liebrand was released. The original release had reached number 7 in the UK in early 1978, and the re-release climbed higher to number 4.

At the 30th Annual Grammy Awards in 1988, Withers won the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Song as songwriter for the re-recording of "Lean on Me" by Club Nouveau. This was Withers' ninth Grammy nomination and third win. Withers contributed two songs to Jimmy Buffett's 2004 release License to Chill. Following the reissues of Still Bill on January 28, 2003, and Just As I Am on March 8, 2005, there was speculation of previously unreleased material being issued as a new album. In 2006, Sony gave back to Withers his previously unreleased tapes. In 2007, "Lean on Me" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014, Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex & Columbia Albums Collection, a nine-disc set featuring Withers's eight studio albums, as well as his live album Live at Carnegie Hall, received the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album (sharing the award with the Rolling Stones' Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965). The award was presented to Leo Sacks, who produced the collection, and the mastering engineers, Mark Wilder, Joseph M. Palmaccio, and Tom Ruff.

In 2005, Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In April 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Stevie Wonder. He described the honor as "an award of attrition" and said: "What few songs I wrote during my brief career, there ain't a genre that somebody didn't record them in. I'm not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don't think I've done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia." Later that year, a tribute concert in his honor was held at Carnegie Hall featuring Aloe Blacc, Ed Sheeran, Dr. John, Michael McDonald, and Anthony Hamilton. The concert recreated Withers's 1973 concert album, Live at Carnegie Hall, along with some of his other material. Withers was in attendance and spoke briefly onstage.

In February 2017, he made an appearance on Joy Reid's MSNBC show to talk about the refugee crisis as well as the political climate in America.

After full-time music career

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.

Withers largely retired from his career in music in 1985.[citation needed ] He pursued other work but occasionally performed guest vocals, tribute concert appearances, and similar activities.

Withers was known for his "smooth" baritone vocals and "sumptuous" soul arrangements. He wrote some of the most covered songs of the 1970s, including "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine". The former entered the Hot 100 chart through multiple versions, including Club Nouveau's 1987 cover, which made the Withers-penned composition one of nine songs to have led the chart via different acts. With "Lovely Day", he set the record for the longest sustained note on a chart hit on American charts, holding a high E for 18 seconds. Editors from The Guardian considered that Withers' songs are "some of the most beloved in the American songbook," citing, "'Ain't No Sunshine' is regarded as one of the all-time great breakup tracks, while 'Lean on Me', an ode to the supportive power of friendship..." For the same newspaper, Alex Petridis noticed "[he] laid pain and paranoia under his deceptively gentle songs, and retired early having conquered gospel, funk, blues, disco and more." In Rolling Stone, writer Andy Greene noticed several of his songs "are embedded in the culture and have been covered countless times."

Writing for The New York Times, Giovanni Russonello considered Withers "[a] soulful singer with a gift for writing understated classics", adding, "the ultimate homespun hitmaker, he had an innate sense of what might make a song memorable, and little interest in excess attitude or accoutrements. Ultimately Withers reminded us that it's the everyday that is the most meaningful: work, family, love, loss." A article considered that Withers "stands as one of R&B/soul music's most revered singer-songwriters." In the same magazine, writer Gail Mitchell acknowledged "Withers' legacy has flourished in the decades since, thanks to a cross-section of artists who have covered/sampled his songs or cited him as a major influence." Musician and music journalist Questlove referred to Withers' post-breakup 1974 album as "a diary [...] [it] was a pre- reality-show look at his life. Keep in mind this was years before Marvin Gaye did it with Here, My Dear." The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson deemed him "a songwriter's songwriter". Musicians Sade, D'Angelo, Justin Timberlake, John Legend and Ed Sheeran have credited Withers as a music inspiration.

Personal life and death

Withers married actress Denise Nicholas in 1973, during her stint on the sitcom . The couple made headlines following reports of domestic violence. They divorced in 1974.

In 1976, Withers married Marcia Johnson. They had two children, Todd and Kori. Marcia eventually assumed the direct management of his Beverly Hills -based publishing companies, in which his children also became involved as they became adults.

Withers died from heart complications in Los Angeles on March 30, 2020, at age 81; his family announced his death four days later. He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

The Best of Bill Withers (1975)

The Best of Bill Withers (1980)

Bill Withers' Greatest Hits (1981)

Lean on Me: The Best of Bill Withers (1994)

The Best of Bill Withers: Lean on Me (2000)

The Ultimate Bill Withers Collection (2000)

Lovely Day: The Very Best of Bill Withers (2005)

Ain't No Sunshine: The Best of Bill Withers (2008)

Playlist: The Very Best of Bill Withers (2009)

The Essential Bill Withers (2013)

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are bestowed by The Recording Academy. Withers has won three Grammys from nine nominations.

References

External links

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William Harrison "Bill" Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 - March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He recorded several major hits, including " Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), " Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (1972), " Lean on Me" (1972), " Lovely Day" (1977), and " Just the Two of Us" (1981).

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Bill Withers ~ Lovely Day 1977 Disco Purrfection Version

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Robyn

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Grover Washington Jr. - Just the Two of Us (feat. Bill Withers) (Official Lyric Video)

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I would describe the music as jazzy and when I listen to the music it makes me feel calm.

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I would describe his music clam and jazzing and it made me relaxed and i like it

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I would  describe the music as  like jazzy. Or like kind of  chill.

It was nice it made me feel clam and a little bit sleepy. I kind of liked it but in my opion this isn my kind of music.

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I would describe this music as calm and kind of funky. It makes me feel calm and I really like it.

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I describe the music as funky and calm. The music makes me feel calm. I do really like the music.

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He was homeless