Bill Withers’ 10 greatest songs, ranked

24 September 2024, 18:20

Bill Withers in 1971. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images). Picture: Getty

By Thomas Curtis-Horsfall

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He had a voice that was tailor-made to move people.

But a career in music came later than most to the imitable Bill Withers, who moved to California at the age of 29 in 1967 to pursue his dream after a nine-year stint in the US Navy.

A smile as great and open as his heart, Bill possessed effortless cool and conveyed universal emotion in his music, like few artists before or since.

After breaking through with his 1971 debut album Just As I Am, however, Withers released a further seven studio albums before giving up on music together.

Finding success later than the average artist, Bill grew disillusioned with the music industry "blaxperts", as he termed them, who attempted to derail his career by bringing a halt to his output, the reason why there was an eight-year gap between his penultimate and final album in 1985.

He kept to his word, living out his life in private and shunning the spotlight altogether, making just a handful of appearances after he entered early retirement.

Still, his music echoed throughout the decades since earning Withers three Grammy Awards and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and contributing some of the most beloved songs in the great American songbook.

That said, we've ranked Bill Withers' very best ten songs. Read on to why out which we've picked as his greatest:

'Can We Pretend'

Can We Pretend

Bill Withers recruited the Puerto Rican artist José Feliciano to provide some fluttering fretwork on 'Can We Pretend', adding some much-needed flight to the 1974 song's heavy subject matter.
“Paint a portrait of tomorrow / With no colours from today” Withers sing as he implores a lover to move past their hurt and pain.
The soaring vocals and lush instrumentation deflect from the pained narrator, which is probably very personal - Bill wrote the album +’Justments after the dissolution of his brief marriage to activist Denise Nicholas.
'The Same Love That Made Me Laugh'

The Same Love That Made Me Laugh - Bill Withers | The Midnight Special

'The Same Love That Made Me Laugh' also featured on Bill's 1974 album +’Justments, and was the lead single, though only made a minor dent in the US Billboard charts reaching number fifty.
Whilst it wasn't a massive mainstream hit, Bill's songwriting on his final album for Sussex Records – who took a punt on him as an unknown musician four years earlier – did resonate with a particular artist.
In 1977, Diana Ross covered 'The Same Love That Made Me Laugh' for her album Baby It's Me, though she chose not to release it as a single.
'Just The Two Of Us' with Grover Washington Jr.

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

'Just The Two Of Us' originated as an instrumental composition, written by producers Ralph MacDonald and William Salter, before they reached out to Bill Withers to write lyrics for the piece.
The song evolved into a sumptuous ode to companionship performed by Bill and jazz saxophonist George Washington Jr.
Becoming both a chart hit reaching number two in the US Billboard charts and bagging Withers his final Grammy Award a year after the song's 1980 release, 'Just The Two Of Us' made Washington a prominent figure of the smooth-jazz movement that decade which is largely credited to his album, Winelight.
'Grandma’s Hands'

Bill Withers - Grandma's Hands (BBC In Concert, May 11, 1974)

One of the primary reasons Bill Withers grew tiresome of the music industry – notably his time at Columbia Records – was his inability to write songs which had meaning to him, but weren't perceived to be marketable to a mass audience.
'Grandma's Hands' was one such song that would have never been green-lit had he not released his earlier albums on the much smaller Sussex Records.
Inspired by his own Grandma Galloway who nurtured him growing up in Slab Fork, West Virginia, Bill grew up with a stutter yet his grandmother reiterated to him that people will one day appreciate who he is. She was right. "I learned how to really love somebody from just a nice old lady. My favourite thing that I've written has to be about this favourite old lady of mine," Bill revealed in the 2009 documentary, Still Bill.
The song's strong emotional bond to family heritage has connected with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, and Gil Scott-Heron who have all covered 'Grandma's Hands' since its 1971 release.
'Harlem'

Harlem

'Harlem' was the first glimpse of Bill Withers the world got, though it was initially ignored - the song started as his 1967 debut release 'Three Nights And A Morning' which was arranged by Mort Garson.
Withers knew its potential, however, and reworked it for his 1971 debut album Just As I Am – as the album's intro, no less.
The sauntering slice of inner-city life builds throughout into a sweat-laden crescendo complete with stomping rhythms and impatient orchestration.
Painting a three-dimensional picture of the New York neighbourhood, Withers perfectly captures the pressures (“Too hot to sleep, too hot to eat / I don’t care if I die or not!”), politics (“Our crooked delegation / Wants a donation”), and parties (“You can really swing and shake your pretty thing”) that go down.
'Who Is He (And What Is He To You)?'

Bill Withers - Who Is He (And What Is He to You)? (Official Audio)

Bill Withers wrote 'Who Is He (And What Is He To You)?' with songwriter Stan McKenney who wrote frequently for R&B vocal quartet The Chi-Lites, a practice he'd often reneged.
"Stan McKenney sent those lyrics to me in the mail," he told Mojo magazine in 2003. "I've gotten a gazillion things in the mail and that's the only one I've ever done something with, because I could see it. If I don't see it, it doesn't occur to me, so I don't attempt to say it."
Safe to say it was a wise decision – the song's theme of adultery resonated, with 'Who Is He (And What Is He To You)?' becoming one of Withers' most beloved songs after featuring on his 1972 sophomore album, Still Bill.
It's lived many lives too, having been covered by the Gladys Knight & the Pips, Meshell Ndegeocello, as well as being featured prominently in Quentin Tarantino's 1997 slow-burn crime drama Jackie Brown.
'Lovely Day'

Bill Withers - Lovely Day (Official Audio)

Undoubtedly one of the all-time great sun-soaked summer soul anthems, 'Lovely Day' can also lay claim to having one of the longest-held notes in a hit single – Bill holds the note for "lovely daaaaay" for eighteen seconds toward the end of the song.
He co-wrote the uplifting song with Skip Scarborough, who has worked with the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire, Patti LaBelle, George Benson, and Anita Baker, and his positive nature rubbed off on Bill.
"Skip was a very nice, gentle man," Bill explained in 2004. "The way Skip was, every day was just a lovely day. He was an optimist. If I had sat down with the same music and my collaborator had been somebody else with a different personality, it probably would have caused something else to cross my mind lyrically. It was a combination of the music and the person and the ambiance in the room."
The lead single to Bill's 1977 album Menagerie, 'Lovely Day' became his biggest hit in the UK reaching number seven in the charts, and is also one of his most enduring.
'Use Me'

Bill Withers - Use Me (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1972)

'Use Me' details the heartache felt in a relationship when a guy's girl continues to walk all over him, and he accepts it, despite his friends imploring him to leave her.
Funnily enough, the song wasn't inspired by Bill's own personal romantic relationship, but his employer – he came up with the idea for the song when he was still a mechanic earning $3 an hour.
Featuring on Withers' second album, Still Bill, 'Use Me' was a major hit in his native America, reaching number two in the US Billboard charts in 1972.
Even though it only took about five minutes to pull together after rehearsing in drummer James Gadson's garage: "We cut that whole Still Bill album in eight hours for $7,500. I loved that band," Bill said in 2003.
'Lean On Me'

Bill Withers - Lean On Me (BBC In Concert, May 11, 1974)

"I'm a stickler for saying something the simplest possible way with some elements of poetry. Simple is memorable," Bill once said about his approach to songwriting.
That's precisely how he laid out the sense of strength, partnership, and unconditional support in his 1972 song 'Lean On Me', a song that has echoed throughout the ages due to its timeless message.
Its core inspiration actually derived from an experience Bill had driving through Alabama in the late fifties when his tire blew out. As a young black man in that state at that time, he could've feared for his life, yet a local passer-by went out of his way to pick up a tyre and help Bill replace his.
It was a notion that was universally felt, with 'Lean On Me' becoming Bill's first (and only) number-one single in the US, and has been covered by the likes of Tina Turner, Tom Jones, and Al Green in the years since.
'Ain’t No Sunshine'

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1972)

Pained, brooding, and indisputably timeless, 'Ain't No Sunshine' is undoubtedly Bill Withers' greatest songwriting achievement.
Before the release of 'Ain't No Sunshine', Bill was struggling to make his name as a musician, having only meaningfully pursued a career in music at the age of 32.
On the cusp of giving up, he met Booker T. Jones from Booker T & the MG's (who was Otis Redding's backing band at one point), who introduced him to elite musicians such as Stephen Stills who believed in Bill's talent.
Fast forward a few months, and he released 'Harlem' with 'Ain't No Sunshine' as its B-side. Despite having no introduction with the vocal coming in off the bat, DJs loved it.
The psychedelic soul ballad transformed Bill into the bonafide musician he'd hoped to become, with an unlikely song that ignored the conventions of popular music.
It became a top three hit on the US Billboard charts in 197, though didn't quite make the same mainstream impact in the UK until Michael Jackson covered it the following year.
In a 2004 interview, Bill revealed the song's essence came from watching 1962 movie Days Of Wine And Roses starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick: "They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It's like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren't particularly good for you."