"Ain't No Sunshine" | ||||
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Single by Bill Withers | ||||
from the album Just As I Am | ||||
B-side | "Harlem" | |||
Released | July 1971 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:04 | |||
Label | Sussex | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bill Withers | |||
Producer(s) | Booker T. Jones | |||
Bill Withers singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
"Ain't No Sunshine" on YouTube |
"Ain't No Sunshine" is a song by Bill Withers, from his 1971 debut album Just As I Am, produced by Booker T. Jones. The record featured musicians Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass guitar, Al Jackson Jr. on drums and Stephen Stills on guitar. [2] String arrangements were done by Booker T. Jones. The song was recorded in Los Angeles, with overdubs in Memphis by engineer Terry Manning.
The song was released as a single in 1971, becoming a breakthrough hit for Withers, reaching number six on the U.S. R&B Chart and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 23 song for 1971.
The song reached the Top 40 again in 2009, when it was sung by Kris Allen in the eighth season of American Idol .
In 2024, the single was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, and/or aesthetically significant". [3]
Withers was inspired to write the song after watching the 1962 movie Days of Wine and Roses . He explained, in reference to the characters played by Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon, "They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It's like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren't particularly good for you. It's just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I'm not aware of." [4]
For the song's third verse, Withers had intended to write more lyrics instead of repeating the phrase "I know" 26 times, but then followed the advice of the other musicians to leave it that way: "I was this factory worker puttering around," Withers said. "So when they said to leave it like that, I left it." [4]
Withers, then 31, was working at a factory making bathrooms for 747s at the time he wrote the song. When the song went gold, the record company presented Withers with a golden toilet seat, marking the start of his new career. [5] "Ain't No Sunshine" was the first of Withers' three gold records in the U.S.
Originally released as the B-side to another song called "Harlem", "Ain't No Sunshine" was preferred by disc jockeys, and it became a huge hit, Withers' first. [6] "Harlem" was subsequently covered by The 5th Dimension, who featured it on their Soul and Inspiration album and released it as a single.
Withers performed "Ain't No Sunshine" on The Old Grey Whistle Test . [7] It won the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1972 [6] and is ranked 285th on Rolling Stone 's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [8]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [24] | Platinum | 70,000‡ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [25] | Platinum | 90,000‡ |
Germany (BVMI) [26] | Gold | 250,000‡ |
Italy (FIMI) [27] | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [28] | 3× Platinum | 90,000‡ |
Portugal (AFP) [29] | 2× Platinum | 80,000‡ |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [30] | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [31] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [32] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
Streaming | ||
Greece (IFPI Greece) [33] | Platinum | 2,000,000† |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
"Ain't No Sunshine" | ||||
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Single by Michael Jackson | ||||
from the album Got to Be There | ||||
B-side | "I Wanna Be Where You Are" | |||
Released | July 3, 1972 | |||
Recorded | 1971 | |||
Studio | Hitsville West (Los Angeles, California) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:09 | |||
Label | Motown | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bill Withers | |||
Producer(s) | Hal Davis | |||
Michael Jackson singles chronology | ||||
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In 1971, singer Michael Jackson recorded a rendition of Bill Withers' song for his debut album Got to Be There (released in early 1972).
In the UK the song was released as the third (and final) single from the album (after the two singles "Got to Be There" and "Rockin' Robin", a cover of Bobby Day's 1958 song). The song "I Wanna Be Where You Are", which was released as the third single in the US, was on the B-side. It was a hit, peaking in the UK Singles Chart at number 8 for 3 weeks in September 1972. The song was remixed by Benny Blanco for the 2009 release The Remix Suite . The song's drum break was sampled in "Gonna Love Me" by Teyana Taylor from her second studio album K.T.S.E. .
Chart (1972) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Singles (OCC) [35] | 8 |
Chart (2009) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Singles (OCC) [36] | 92 |
The Polish rock band Budka Suflera recorded a cover version of the song in 1974 under the title "Sen o dolinie", with Krzysztof Cugowski providing the lead vocal. The single also appeared on their 1983 compilation album "1974-1984" released by Polskie Nagrania Muza. The Polish lyrics were written by Adam Sikorski. It peaked at number 14 on Poland's LP3 chart in 1983 [37]
In November 1991, Australian pop band Rockmelons, (featuring vocalist Deni Hines) released a version as the lead single of their second studio album, Form 1 Planet (1992). The version peaked at number five and was certified Gold in Australia. [38] [39] It also peaked at number eight in New Zealand. [40]
The Nylons version was released in 1998 and reached number 53 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart. [41] A South African male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo recorded its own version featuring vocalist Des'ree for their studio album In Harmony (1999). As a single, the version peaked at number 42 in the UK. [42]
A heavy metal band Black Label Society covered the song entitled "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" for their 2013 album Unblackened . As a single, the version peaked at number 42 on the Canadian Rock Chart. [43]
William Harrison Withers Jr. was an American singer and songwriter. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977) and "Just the Two of Us" (1980). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more.
Dohnyale Sharon "Deni" Hines is an Australian singer who has been releasing music since the early 1990s, with chart success in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe. She is the daughter of American-born Australian singer Marcia Hines.
"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" is a 1966 song and hit single by the Temptations for Motown Records' Gordy label, produced by Norman Whitfield and written by Whitfield and Edward Holland Jr. The song peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and was a number-one hit on the Billboard R&B charts for eight non-consecutive weeks. The song's success, in the wake of the relative underperformance of the previous Temptations' single, "Get Ready", resulted in Norman Whitfield replacing Smokey Robinson, producer of "Get Ready", as the Temptations' main producer. In 2004 it finished number 94 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs poll thanks to its inclusion in The Big Chill soundtrack.
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is a song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966 for the Tamla label, a division of Motown. The composition was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and became a hit again in 1970 when recorded by former Supremes frontwoman Diana Ross. The song became Ross's first solo number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Got to Be There is the debut solo studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Motown on January 24, 1972, four weeks after the Jackson 5's Greatest Hits (1971). It includes the song of the same name, which was released on October 7, 1971, as Jackson's debut solo single.
"Unwritten" is a song by English singer Natasha Bedingfield for her debut studio album of the same name. It was released on 29 November 2004 as the third single from the album. The song was written by Bedingfield, Danielle Brisebois, and Wayne Rodrigues and produced by Rodrigues and Brisebois. The single was released as the album's third UK single and second US single. In 2006, "Unwritten" became the theme song for the MTV reality television series The Hills. It reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first top-10 hit in the United States.
"Lean on Me" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. It was released in April 1972 as the first single from his second album, Still Bill. It was a number one single on both the soul and Billboard Hot 100 charts, the latter chart for three weeks in July 1972. Billboard ranked it as the No. 7 song of 1972. It was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2010. Numerous other versions have been recorded, and it is one of only nine songs to have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with versions recorded by two different artists. In 2007, the 1972 recording of the song by Bill Withers on Sussex Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
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"Just the Two of Us" is a 1980 song written by Bill Withers, William Salter, and Ralph MacDonald, and recorded by Grover Washington Jr. with Withers on vocals. Elektra Records released it in Washington's 1980 album Winelight and as a February 1981 single.
Rockmelons, often referred to as the Rockies, were an Australian pop/dance/R&B group formed in 1983 in Sydney. Primary members are Bryon Jones, his brother Jonathon Jones and Raymond Medhurst. They had two Australian top five hit singles in the early 1990s with "Ain't No Sunshine" and "That Word (L.O.V.E.)", both sung by Deni Hines. The associated album, Form 1 Planet, peaked at number 3 on the ARIA albums chart in 1992, and was certified platinum in Australia.
American pop rock band OneRepublic has released five studio albums, one live album, six extended plays, 39 singles, 10 promotional singles, and 31 music videos. Formed in 2002, OneRepublic first found commercial recognition when their song "Apologize" was released onto Myspace in 2006 and they subsequently became the biggest act on that site. It was remixed by American record producer Timbaland, appearing on his album Shock Value. Released as a single in 2007, the song topped the charts in multiple countries, including Australia and Canada, while also reaching the top three in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has since sold over 3.6 million digital downloads in the United States. The band's debut studio album, Dreaming Out Loud, was released in November 2007. It hit the top ten on the albums charts of countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. It also peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard 200, earning a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's second single, "Stop and Stare", peaked at number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 while also reaching the top five in Austria and the United Kingdom. The album spawned three more singles: "Say ", "Mercy", and "Come Home".
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