This review is about Bill Withers "Ain't No Sunshine" and an old Michael Jackson's cover
The first time I heard this song when I was watching a dance competition, I think it was about 2012, so 2 dancers chose this song to dance with it. later I have found out that the song was originally created by Bill Withers and it was a song from 1971 from his album "Just as I am" the producer of this song is Booker T.Jones (He also arranged the strings). Bill Withers was inspired by a movie from 1962, the movie is called "Days of Wine and Roses", actually he wrote this song right after he watched that movie, the movie is about 2 Americans who become addicted to Alcohol and they are trying to deal with their problems and finding a way to get rid of the problems.
before Bill Withers becomes famous, he was working in a factory making toilet seats for airplanes and he wrote the song while he was working there but later when he became famous with that single track, the company even gave him a gift (
a golden toilet). though it might not sound good as it is a toilet, that's what the factory was creating so it really meant good to him. and then he started his new career when he was 31 years old and he joined the world of musicians.
For the studio record, they asked Donald "Duck" Dunn (Bassist) and Al Jackson Jr. (Drummer), Stephen Stills (Guitarist) to join and play. It was engineered by Terry Manning in Memphis (a city along the Mississippi River in southwestern of Shelby County). the song was recorded in the key of A minor and its tempo is 80 BPM.
There is a line where he keeps singing "I know" and he planned to change that part but later other famous musicians advised him to leave it the way it is, and he decided to leave it like how it was.
Bill Withers said:
"Graham Nash was sitting right in front of me, Stephen Stills was playing and there was Booker T and the MGs. They were all these people with all this experience and I was this factory worker. Their general feeling was, Leave it like that."
Michael Jackson also covered this song in 1972, he was just a kid at that time but he was already in the music business.
I hope you enjoyed reading and listening to this song in 2 versions, let me know if you have any idea about this song and leave a comment below,
Regards,