Born in Slab Fork, West Virginia, on 4 July 1938, died in Los Angeles on 30 March 2020; Bill Withers was a soul singer and songwriter. At 17 he enlisted in the Navy, where he served for nine years; in 1971 his first album “Just As I Am”, produced by Booker T. Jones, appeared on Sussex Records. As a songwriter he received Grammys for “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Just the Two of Us”, and for Club Nouveau’s re-recording of “Lean On Me”; he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, and in 2017 West Virginia University awarded him an honorary doctorate. On the gala recording Doc Heilein and Friends Gala 2023 – Ich will keine Schokolade (2023) Dennis LeGree and Leslie Jost sing “Lean On Me” from his second album “Still Bill” (1972); the song went to number one on the pop and R&B charts.
Bill Withers
Composer
