Few singers have possessed a baritone as rich and comforting as that of Bill Withers. Even smaller in number are the songwriters who have shared the West Virginian’s natural ability to articulate a comprehensive range of emotions and perspectives — jubilation and gratitude, jealousy, and spite — with maximal levels of conviction and concision. Late to arrive, the everyman R&B paragon had just turned 33 when ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’ the unfading ballad off Just as I Am (1971), made him a sudden and unlikely success story, within one year an aircraft mechanic-turned-million-selling, Grammy-winning artist. Through the next ten years, Withers continued to meld soul, gospel, folk, and funk with rare finesse. He collected more gold singles with ‘Lean on Me’ and ‘Use Me,’ both off the similarly successful Still Bill (1972), reached the same height with Menagerie (1977), led by ‘Lovely Day,’ and was handed a second Grammy for ‘Just the Two of Us’ (1981), his collaboration with Grover Washington, Jr. Early to leave, Withers made his last statement with Watching You Watching Me (1985), closing a songbook that has served as a bountiful resource for artists from a multitude of stylistic persuasions. Given his flowers before his death at the age of 81, Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The son of a maid and a coal miner, William Harrison Withers, Jr. was born in Slab Fork, West Virginia on July 4, 1938, and was raised in nearby Beckley. He wrote his first song at the age of four, but his talent wouldn’t truly manifest for another three decades. Withers spent his late teens and most of his twenties in the U.S. Navy, where he served as an aircraft mechanic. Discharged after nine years of service, Withers relocated to San Jose, where he worked as a milkman, made aircraft parts, and eventually worked on planes. While at an Oakland club to see Lou Rawls, Withers overheard how much the star would be profiting from the gig, and was consequently motivated to buy a guitar and develop his singing and writing skills. Withers soon made his recorded debut with the self-composed ‘Three Nights and a Morning,’ an uptempo hardscrabble shouter produced, arranged, and released by Mort Garson, but the 1967 single was a one-off. A little later, having moved to Los Angeles and landed another aircraft mechanic job — more specifically as a toilet installer — Withers invested in recording a demo. The Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band’s Ray Jackson, one of the musicians hired to help, took the tape to the Stax label’s Forest Hamilton, who arranged to have Sussex Records’ Clarence Avant meet Withers. Physically moved by an original titled ‘Grandma’s Hands,’ Avant signed Withers to Sussex.
Quickly matched by Avant with Booker T. Jones and most of the producer, keyboardist, and bandleader’s partners in the M.G.’s, along with Stephen Stills (guitar), Jim Keltner (drums), and Chris Ethridge (bass), Withers cut Just as I Am, a 12-song set with ten originals. The album entered the Billboard’s Top LP’s chart in June 1971. ‘Harlem,’ the stomping opener, was released as the first single, but radio DJs favored the mournful ballad on the B-side, ‘Ain’t No Sunshine.’ Sussex responded with a pressing that switched designations, and the new A-side scaled to number three on the Hot 100 (and number six on the R&B chart). The subsequent ‘Grandma’s Hands’ almost cracked the Top 40 (number 18 R&B). Just before Still Bill reached its number 39 peak, Withers was heard on another Sussex product, J.J. Johnson’s score for the Bill Cosby vehicle Man and Boy, and a few months later, he granted ‘Cold Bologna’ — on which he also played guitar — to the Isley Brothers’ Givin’ It Back. The following March, ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ was up for two Grammy awards and won Best Rhythm & Blues Song. Withers was also nominated for Best New Artist, which went to Carly Simon.