![]() ![]() Goodbar along with "She Wants to (Get on Down)". His first album release with the label, Making Music, included the single "She's Lonely", which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Columbia Records Īfter Sussex Records folded, Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975. Other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film Soul Power. Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, and he is heard on the accompanying soundtrack. King in Zaire four weeks prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Soon sudden wealth took its toll on him while economic clampdown took its toll on his social context.ĭuring this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips album I Feel a Song, and in October 1974 performed in concert together with James Brown, Etta James, and B.B. ![]() He didn't accept that there had to be winners and losers, that fellowship was a luxury the newly successful couldn't afford. Warm, raunchy, secular, common, he never strove for Ashford & Simpson-style sophistication, which hardly rendered him immune to the temptations of sudden wealth-cross-class attraction is what gives ' Use Me' its kick. Withers sang for a black nouveau middle class that didn't yet understand how precarious its status was. Due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter. In 1974, Withers recorded the album +'Justments. His performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, 1972, was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1972. gold disc award taking place on October 12, 1972. His follow-up, " Use Me," released in August 1972, became his third million-seller, with the R.I.A.A. It was Withers's second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million. The single, " Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972. ĭuring a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, Still Bill. The track had already sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in September 1971. Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for " Ain't No Sunshine" at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972. The album was a success, and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch box. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and " Grandma's Hands" as singles. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. In early 1970, Withers's demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. ![]() Withers continued to work on his musicianship, learning guitar. When he returned with the song " Ain't No Sunshine" in 1971, he refused to resign from his job because he believed the music business was a fickle industry. Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, IBM and Ford, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. Arranged by Mort Garson, the song went unnoticed at the time but was later reworked by Withers as the track "Harlem". His debut release was "Three Nights and a Morning" in 1967. He left the Navy in 1965, relocating to Los Angeles in 1967 to start a music career. Withers enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17, and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs. He was 13 years old when his father died. His parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised by his mother's family in nearby Beckley, West Virginia. He was born with a stutter and later said he had a hard time fitting in. ![]() He was the son of Mattie (née Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, on July 4, 1938. ![]()
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