Story of the song: Ain’t no Sunshine by Bill Withers

At 32, Bill Withers, originally from rural Slab Fork, West Virginia, was something of a latecomer to a world dominated by twentysomething performers. He had spent nine years in the US navy before taking a job installing lavatories on Boeing 747s.

In 1970 he signed with the Hollywood independent Sussex Records and set about recording his first album. On paper, he seemed an unlikely prospect. On vinyl, his strategy of “simple yet sophisticated” couldn’t fail. “Simple is memorable,” said Withers. “If something’s too complicated, you’re not going to walk around humming it to yourself because it’s too hard to remember. It’s very difficult to make things simple and understandable.”

His early demo bounced around various labels in the late Sixties, until it reached the ears of the Stax keyboard player and producer, Booker T Jones. Jones saw the potential and brought in some top-drawer musicians, including Al Jackson and Donald Dunn from his band, The MGs, plus the guitarist Stephen Stills. Together they cut what would become Withers’s debut, Just As I Am. The launch single was a pounding summer anthem, “Harlem”. It didn’t quite hit the hot spot, however, so DJs flipped the record and instead pushed the laidback soul of “Ain’t No Sunshine”.