Bill Withers
Bill Withers was 32 years old and still assembling aircraft toilets at a factory when he signed his first record deal. The album cover was shot during his actual lunch break, with his actual lunchbox. The phrase "I know, I know" appears 26 times in "Ain't No Sunshine" because it was temporary placeholder text for a verse he never finished writing. Stephen Stills and Booker T. Jones both advised him to keep it exactly as it was. The song won the 1972 Grammy for Best R&B Song.
In our deep dive into Ain't No Sunshine, we trace the song from the 1962 film that inspired it to the accidental lyric that nobody could improve on, and what it reveals about a singer-songwriter unlike anyone before or since.
Deep Dives
