William Harrison "Bill" Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an … Read Full Bio ↴William Harrison "Bill" Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a relatively short career of fifteen years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977), and "Just the Two of Us" (1981). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Two of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, on July 4, 1938. He was the son of Mattie (Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. He was born with a stutter and later said he had a hard time fitting in. His parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised by his mother's family in nearby Beckley, West Virginia. He was 13 years old when his father died. Withers enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17, and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs.

He left the Navy in 1965, relocating to Los Angeles in 1967 to start a music career. His debut release was "Three Nights and a Morning" in 1967. Arranged by Mort Garson, the song went unnoticed at the time but was later reworked by Withers as the track "Harlem".

Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, IBM and Ford, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he returned with the song "Ain't No Sunshine" in 1971, he refused to resign from his job because he believed the music business was a fickle industry. In early 1970, Withers's demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch box.

Withers was known for his "smooth" baritone vocals and "sumptuous" soul arrangements. He wrote some of the most covered songs of the 1970s, including "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine". The former entered the Hot 100 chart through multiple versions, including Club Nouveau's 1987 cover, which made the composition one of nine songs to have led the chart via different acts. With "Lovely Day", he set the record for the longest sustained note on a chart hit on American charts, holding a high E for 18 seconds. Editors from The Guardian considered that Withers' songs are "some of the most beloved in the American songbook," citing, "'Ain't No Sunshine' is regarded as one of the all-time great breakup tracks, while 'Lean on Me', an ode to the supportive power of friendship ..." For the same newspaper, Alex Petridis noticed "[he] laid pain and paranoia under his deceptively gentle songs, and retired early having conquered gospel, funk, blues, disco and more." In Rolling Stone, writer Andy Greene noted that several of his songs "are embedded in the culture and have been covered countless times."

Writing for The New York Times, Giovanni Russonello considered Withers "[a] soulful singer with a gift for writing understated classics", adding, "the ultimate homespun hitmaker, he had an innate sense of what might make a song memorable, and little interest in excess attitude or accoutrements. Ultimately Withers reminded us that it’s the everyday that is the most meaningful: work, family, love, loss." A Billboard article considered that Withers "stands as one of R&B/soul music's most revered singer-songwriters." In the same magazine, writer Gail Mitchell acknowledged "Withers' legacy has flourished in the decades since, thanks to a cross-section of artists who have covered/sampled his songs or cited him as a major influence." Musician and music journalist Questlove referred to Withers' post-breakup 1974 album +'Justments as "a diary [...] [it] was a pre-reality-show look at his life. Keep in mind this was years before Marvin Gaye did it with Here, My Dear." The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson deemed him "a songwriter's songwriter". Musicians Sade, D'Angelo, Justin Timberlake, John Legend and Ed Sheeran have credited Withers as a music inspiration.

Withers died from heart complications in Los Angeles on March 30, 2020, at age 81; his family announced his death four days later. He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).

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I Want to Spend the Night
Bill Withers Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I wanna spend the night
With you
Forever

Every time we wind up spending the night
Together
Do you ever feel it?

I wanna share my life
With you
Forever

Every time we wind sharing a night
Together
Do you ever feel it?

And when I stay away from you
I never get to sleep
I try to hug my pillow
And pretend that you're with me
But I can't feel it

Then when we are together
It's right there for me to see
I can't keep looking at loneliness
And try to call it freedom
Do you ever feel it?

I wanna spend the night
With you
Forever

Every time we wind up spending the night
Together
Do you ever feel it?

Do you ever wanna spend the night?
Do you ever wanna spend the night?
Do you ever wanna spend the night?
Do you ever wanna spend the night?
Do you ever wanna spend the night?

Overall Meaning

In "I Want to Spend the Night," Bill Withers expresses his desire to spend the night and share his life with his romantic partner forever. He reflects on the feeling he experiences every time they spend the night together and wonders if his partner feels the same. When he is away from his partner, he struggles to sleep and tries to pretend that his partner is with him, but it is not the same. However, when they are together, Withers is able to see that he cannot keep calling his loneliness freedom and wishes to spend the night together.

The song is a beautiful ode to a profound connection and the desire for human connection. Withers is expressing the vulnerability and longing that many individuals feel when they fall deeply in love with someone. The lyrics cut to the heart of the matter and offer a relatable experience that many people have felt.

One interesting fact about the song is that Bill Withers wrote it with Grover Washington Jr. in mind for the instrumental portion of the song. The two had a successful collaboration with the song “Just the Two of Us” shortly after the release of “I Want to Spend the Night.”

Another interesting fact is that the song was released as a single and did not reach the same level of commercial success as Withers’ previous hits “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lean On Me.” Nonetheless, the song retains a loyal fanbase and is a favorite among Withers' fans.

The chords for "I Want to Spend the Night" are:
Verse 1:
Bbmaj7, Cm7, Abmaj7, Db9

Chorus:
Gbmaj7, Bbm7, Gb6, Fm7, Bb7#5, Ebm7

Verse 2:
Bbmaj7, Cm7, Abmaj7, Db9

Chorus:
Gbmaj7, Bbm7, Gb6, Fm7, Bb7#5, Ebm7

Bridge:
Dmaj7, Amaj7, Dmaj7, Amaj7

Chorus:
Gbmaj7, Bbm7, Gb6, Fm7, Bb7#5, Ebm7

Line by Line Meaning

I wanna spend the night
I desire to spend the night

With you
In your company

Forever
Permanently

Every time we wind up spending the night
Each time we end up spending the night

Together
In each other's presence