Bill Withers wrote and recorded Ain't No Sunshine in 1971, while he was still a factory worker in Los Angeles. The song is incomplete. He intended to add a verse later and in the meantime sang twenty-six “I knows.”
Ain't No Sunshine |
Over the last 30 years the song has been covered by everyone from a young Michael Jackson to an old Leonard Cohen (tell me if you can find a recording of it). Here are my two favorite covers of this classic song:
Ken Boothe does this real nice reggae cut. It is included on several of his albums as well as the Darker Than Blue compilation reviewed earlier.
Ain't No Sunshine |
Isaac Hayes performs this very extended version at Wattstax. The Wattstax concert was sort of a black answer to Woodstock. In 1972, Memphis’ Stax records brought some of it’s greatest acts including the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, and the Bar-kays to LA to commemorate the Watts riots. Tickets were one dollar. Rev. Jesse Jackson gave the invocation and the music began.
Ain't No Sunshine |