Singer-songwriter Bill Withers was born William Harrison Withers, Jr. in West Virginia on July 4 in 1938. Although he has recorded a number of hits, his first big hit, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” climbed the charts by surprise.
After the release of his first album, his first single, “Harlem,” received little airplay on the radio. But disc jockeys recognized something special on the other side of the record and began paying the B-side, a song Withers had written called “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
“Ain’t No Sunshine”
The song got a boost with a British TV appearance too. Around 1971 or 1972, Withers appeared on British television following the release of his first album, Just As I Am (1971). On this British TV show, Withers introduced the B-side song, “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
According to a New Yorker article, as Withers introduced the song on the show, he explained, “Men have problems admitting to losing things. . . So, once in my life, I wanted to forgo my own male ego and admit to losing something, so I came up with. . .” Then he broke into the song. (Sasha Frere-Jones, “As Is,” The New Yorker, 8 March 2010: 76.)
Withers, who had been working making toilets for airplanes, was in his early 30s when he earned his first gold record and a Grammy Award for “Ain’t No Sunshine,” thanks to the disc jockeys who recognized the brilliance of the B-side.
Withers would write and perform other hits. These included “Lean on Me,” “Just the Two of Us,” and “Use Me.”
Walking Away From Recording
But following disputes with his record company, by 1985 he gave up recording. As of 2009, he was living in Los Angeles and had not completely given up on music, as recounted in a 2009 documentary about Withers, Still Bill.
It is too bad for us that Withers did not produce more music, but what he did produce was pretty great. The A-side to “Ain’t No Sunshine” should have been a hit too. Check out this performance of “Harlem.”
After this post was first published, Bill Withers was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April 2015. Stevie Wonder presented the induction. Later that year in October 2015, Withers attended a Carnegie Hall tribute concert in his honor. Although he spoke on stage, he did not perform.
Bill Withers passed away from heart complications on March 30, 2020 at the age of 81.
{Note: Although the source of the “Ain’t No Sunshine” video is not labeled, it appears to be that British TV performance described in The New Yorker article, which mentioned Withers’s orange turtleneck.}
What is your favorite Bill Withers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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