Bill Withers

Bill Withers was already in his 30s when his debut album caught on, and his voice conveys an unfazed assurance. "Ain't No Sunshine" is the single that rocketed Withers into the national spotlight, its insinuating folk-soul cadence accentuated by producer Booker T. Jones' spare arrangement and subtle, funky support. Tracks such as "Grandma's Hands" and "Harlem" from the album Just As I Am (presently unavailable) indicated that he would be more than a one-hit wonder. The self-produced followup Still Bill made good on that promise, artistically and commercially. The gospel-tinged "Lean on Me" and the scintillating "Use Me" broadened his range even as they took him to the top of the charts; the many covers of each (including the 1987 Club Nouveau version that made "Lean on Me" #1 a second time) attest to Withers' strength as a writer. Having composed and sung three classic singles and two excellent albums in his first year, Bill Withers was soaring when he recorded Live at Carnegie Hall . Backed by a crack band, he delivers sharp versions of his best songs, tosses in a few new ones, and closes with a medley of "Harlem/Cold Baloney" that sounds more appetizing than it looks.

After this, Withers seemed to back off from the challenge of maintaining this level a little more with each successive album. After switching to Columbia in the mid-'70s, he discreetly stepped over to the middle of the road. Menagerie was the best of his albums there. "Lovely Day" was an engaging single, and Motown vet Paul Riser's orchestrations are, well, lovely, but material such as "Lovely Night for Dancing" and "She Wants to (Get on Down)" is too insubstantial to stick. His quiet-storm collaborations with Grover Washington Jr. (Just the Two of Us) and the Crusaders (Soul Shadows) wound up overshadowing the last few of his own albums, as his career quietly drifted into well-compensated semiretirement. There are several hits collections available (Top Bill and Lean on Me offer the exact same songs), but only Lean on Me: The Best of Bill Withers (no relation to the other compilation titled after that hit) contains more than 10 tracks. (MARK COLEMAN/BEN EDMONDS)

From the 2004 The New Rolling Stone Album Guide