Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters Songcraft Classic: BILL WITHERS ("Lean on Me")
We're celebrating our 10th anniversary all year by digging in the vaults to re-present classic episodes with fresh commentary. Today, we're revisiting our 2015 conversation with Bill Withers.
ABOUT BILL WITHERS
Pop and R&B legend Bill Withers released nine albums between 1971 and 1985 that included such classic songs as “Lean on Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Grandma’s Hands,” “Use Me,” “Lovely Day,” and “Just the Two of Us.” Though he stepped away from the limelight in the mid-1980s, his songs have become classics that have withstood the test of time and been covered by iconic artists including Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney, Ike & Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson, Al Green, The Staple Singers, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Sting, Linda Ronstadt, Roberta Flack, Buddy Guy, Barbra Streisand, and George Benson. Additionally, his music has been sampled by Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, L.L. Cool J, Tupac Shakur, and Kanye West. Withers was in the inaugural class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, and is a nine-time Grammy nominee. He won three Grammy awards for Best R&B song for “Ain’t No Sunshine” in 1971, “Just the Two of Us” in 1981, and the Club Nouveau cover of “Lean on Me” in 1987. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.