Bill's song "Use Me" is also featured in the film "Anchorman." The start of the Blackstreet hit "No Diggity" features a sample of Bill's poem-turned-song "Grandma's Hands."
Over the Rhine toured a cover of Ain't No Sunshine" during 2004 and recorded this on their album "Changes Come." When playing live, the band Eskimo Joe often begins their song "A Song Is a City" with KAV singing "Ain't No Sunshine" as a prelude. Twista sampled "Lovely Day" in the hit single "Sunshine" featuring Anthony Hamilton. Kanye West sampled his song "Rosie" in the song Roses". The country singer Kenny Rogers covered "Ain't No Sunshine" in 1999. Me'Shell Ndegeocello sang "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?" on her 1996 album "Peace Beyond Passion." Will Smith samples Bill's "Just The Two Of Us" in his 1997 song of the same name, and "Lovely Day" with the song "Lovely Daze," (a collaboration with DJ Jazzy Jeff released in 1998). Grace Jones covered his song "Use Me." Fiona Apple has also covered "Use Me" and "Kissing My Love" on her 1998 tour. Ten years earlier, the British glam rock band Mud took the song to No. Club Nouveau's 1986 cover of "Lean On Me," which is now often used in many churches, earned Withers his third Grammy as a songwriter. His songs have been covered by many singers and rappers. Other popular songs he sings are "Use Me" and "Lovely Day," as well as "Just The Two Of Us," which he performed with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. His live album, "Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall," released in 1973, was one of the best live albums to be released during the 1970s. It was recorded during a break in the "Just As I Am" tour and included the well-known single "Lean On Me," which went to #1 on the charts on July 8, 1972. His second album Still Bill also did well on the charts.
He assembled a touring band made up of: drummer James Gadson, guitarist Bernoce Blackmon, keyboardist Ray jackson, and bassist Melvin Dunlap. His first success was with the company Sussex Records in 1971 with his debut hit single Ain't No Sunshine on the album Just As I Am. When he debuted on the music scene with "Ain't No Sunshine," he refused to give up his job at Lockheed because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry and that he was still a novice compared to other working acts like The Temptations or Sammy Davis, Jr. While in Los Angeles, he worked full-time in a Lockheed assembly plant in the day, making toilets for Boeing 747 airliners, then recorded demo tapes and performed in juke joints during the night. He joined the US Navy at seventeen, and stayed there for nine years, before he moved to Los Angeles in 1967. While in Los Angeles, he worked full-time in a Lockheed assembly plant in the day, making toilets for Boeing 747 airliners, then recorded demo tapes and performed in juke joints during the night.īill's father died when he was thirteen. Bill Withers (born Jin Slab Fork, West Virginia) is an American singer-songwriter who performed and recorded from the late 1960s until the mid 1980s.