Lean on Me

I mean, he was a giant.

Some of this, you know, "Lean on Me" is a giant song in American music.

Yeah, I think the, uh, the BBC, uh, performance that's gonna be part of Record Store Day on Black Friday is a BBC show from 1973.

So, you know.

Still Bill was released on May 1st, 1972, and reached number one on the Billboard Soul Albums chart and number four on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

The closing number of side one of the album, Lean On Me, was an ode to the power of friendship.

For the recording of the song, several members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band backed Withers.

Ten days before the album's release, on April 21st, 1972, Lean On Me was released as the lead single from Still Bill.

On June 24th, Lean On Me reached number one on the Billboard Soul Singles chart.

Then the week of July 8th, 1972, it hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for three weeks.

It was Withers' second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million.

In 2007, the 1972 recording of the song by Bill Withers on Sussex Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

And there's a song that comes to my mind, and it's not necessarily a Christian song.

It's not, but it has it, Lean On Me.

You remember that song-

Oh, yeah

...

Lean On Me When You're Weary and-

Bill Withers

... is that who did it? Okay.

But if we are wise, we know that there's always tomorrow.

Lean on me when you're not strong and I'll be your friend.

I'll help you carry on for it won't be long till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.

Please swallow your pride if I have faith you need to borrow.

Call me.

Call me

It's Bill Withers, Lean on Me.

21 on the Capital Countdown.

Yeah.

"Lean On Me."

Yeah.

"Ain't No Sunshine."

What did you have in mind?

Well, I don't, well, I really do like the song Lean On Me.

Mm.

When you're not strong.

... really just [laughs] really wa- i- is there in something that just completely sounds so foreign, um, to him and his partner, and yeah, it's, yeah, he does sound like he wants to fix it, but k- I think on some sort of level, he knows he can't.

Yeah.

So, yeah, lean on me when you're not strong.

Oh.

And when the night is cloudy There is still a light that shines on me Shine until tomorrow, let it be I wake up to the sound of music Sometimes in our lives We all have pain We all have

sorrow Always tomorrow Lean on me When you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For it won't be long Till I'm gonna need Somebody to lean Please swallow your prayer.

We all need somebody to lean on I just might have a problem that you'll understand We all need somebody to lean on Lean on me when you're not strong somebody to lean on you just call on me brother when you need a hand we all need somebody to lean on i just might have a problem that you'll understand we all need somebody to just call me I remember all my life Raining

down as cold as ice

Shadows of a man A face through a window Crying in the night The night goes into

To that end, she introduced the Blue Mist Band, which met the festive mood with the Kool & the Gang classic, Celebrate.

This versatile ensemble, complete with an outstanding saxophone player, continued its set by covering several songs appropriate to the theme of working together and making positive change, including John Lennon's Imagine, Bill Withers' Lean On Me, and Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come.

The set also included Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours, which would have resonance the very next day.

This is a good place to mention that the music and all of the opening session can be viewed and heard by visiting our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash nationsblind.

If you had one song to leave the generation coming up with a note that says, this is what I want you to know, what is it?

man and this this is uh it's just popping my hair right now because i i'm thinking lean on me only because we are going through tough times and it's going to be more tough times as we can foresee in the future the way we this journey we are in the current in this world oh so i would have to go lean on me that's a good one and um i know the artist uh bill withers i believe and then but it's another artist that did it so a few other people did it but lean on me Because we need to all lean on each other.

And if I can keep that going for generations and generations, I will pick that one.

He got me looking.