The soulful Bill Withers was born in the unfortunately named city of Slab Fork, West Virginia in 1938. He is the youngest of 6 children, his father died when he was only 13, and he served in the US Navy for almost a decade before starting a career in music. He was almost immediately successful in the music industry, earning his first Grammy within 2 years of his demo audit with Clarence Avant of Sussex Records. Booker T. Jones (also of Sussex Records) produced his first album, which featured the chart-topping hit, “Aint No Sunshine”.

“Aint No Sunshine” alone has been covered by over 100 established artists, including Al Green, BB King, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, Otis Redding, The Police, The Temptations, and, you guessed it, Akon. “Use Me” has also been covered by some popular people like D’Angelo and Isaac Hayes, but I mostly picked it because it’s pretty awesome (especially on headphones) and Chico Brenes skated to it. (That’s how my boyfriend found it for me.)

Some other popular songs by Mr. Soul — I mean Withers — are “Lovely Day”, “Lean on Me”, “Just the Two of Us”, and “Grandma’s Hands” (which was sampled in the legendary old school hit “No Diggity” by Blackstreet).

In conclusion, Bill Withers is the shit.