Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXVII--Bill Withers: Lean on Me

This week's featured artist--Bill Withers--gets extra coolness points for, on the cover of his first album, using a picture of himself standing outside the aircraft factory where he worked on an assembly line, holding his lunch pail.  In fact, Withers so mistrusted the fickleness of the music industry that he kept his job at the aircraft factory even after having a #3 single on the Billboard charts...though further success would eventually lead him to devoting himself to the music business full time.

Bill Withers is living proof that sometimes quality is a lot more important than quantity.  Over the course of his fifteen year career, Withers had one #1 single (this week's tune), two #2's ("Use Me" and "Just the Two of Us"), one # 3 ("Ain't No Sunshine"), and one #30 ("Lovely Day").  No other single he released reached the top forty--most didn't even chart.  He released eight albums, but only one reached the top ten, and he had just two more in the top forty.  And yet in 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (most deservedly)--and that is a testament to just how great/powerful those hits were (especially his big four singles).  In something of an oddity, in 1985 Withers decided that he'd had enough of the bullshit in the music industry, and after just fifteen years, he called it a career.  He hasn't toured or performed since (and claims he doesn't miss either), and outside of writing a few songs for various artists and a 2009 documentary about his life, has pretty much been living the good life since.

Released in 1972 on his only top ten album, Still Bill, "Lean on Me" is one part gospel, one part soul, and one part pop, all coming together to create a classic single.  I was actually introduced to the song by my late Uncle Bob, who when asked what he was listening to back in the summer of '72 (when I would have been a most impressionable thirteen), went into a sermon about the greatness of "Lean on Me" by one Bill Withers.  Now my Uncle Bob could paint a turd gold and make you truly believe he was giving you a gold ingot, but he wasn't exaggerating when it came to this one.  A nice and simple piano, some organ, some otherworldly backing vocals, and the piece de resistance, the magical vocals of Bill Withers (which if I believed in God, I would believe that Withers' vocals are exactly how God sounds when he sings).  "Lean on Me" is  Withers' lone #1 single (most assuredly with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and was also ranked at #208 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."  In the end, it's pop music at its most inspirational, and heaven knows we can all use a helping hand from time to time.

Fun Fact:  Club Nouveau did a cover version of it in 1987 that also went to #1.  It is most noticeable for being the worst cover version ever recorded, even worse than Madonna's cover of "American Pie," which truly speaks volumes to just how horrid Club Nouveau's version was.  And now I'll get off my soapbox...

Rap Sheet:  "You just call on me, brother, when you need a hand/We all need somebody to lean on..."

Enjoy:

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