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Ain't No Sunshine

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"Ain't No Sunshine"
Song
B-side"Harlem"

"Ain't No Sunshine" is a song by Bill Withers from his 1971 album Just As I Am, produced by Booker T. Jones. The record featured musicians Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass guitar and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums, as well as Withers on lead vocals and guitar. The song was released as a single in September 1971, becoming a breakthrough hit for Withers, reaching number six on the U.S. R&B chart and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

History

Withers was inspired to write this song after watching the 1962 movie Days of Wine and Roses. He explained, in reference to the characters played by Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon, "They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It's like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren't particularly good for you. It's just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I'm not aware of."[1]

For the song's third verse, Withers had intended to write more lyrics instead of repeating the phrase "I know" over and over again, but then followed the advice of the other musicians to leave it that way: "I was this factory worker puttering around," Withers said. "So when they said to leave it like that, I left it."[2] (Withers, then thirty-one years old, was working at a factory making toilet seats for 747s at the time.[2])

The song was originally released as the B-side to another song called "Harlem". Disc jockeys played "Ain't No Sunshine" as the single instead, and it became a huge hit,[1] the first hit for Withers.[2]

"Ain't No Sunshine" is ranked 280th on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[3] The song won the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1972.[1]

Covers

The song has also been covered by many other (at least 144) artists, including:

There are also several songs that share the same title of "Ain't No Sunshine," and borrow lyrics from the hook, but they aren't true covers. Examples include versions by Akon, Cuban Link, Kid Frost, DMX and Boxcutter. DMX's 2001 cover, using the title "No Sunshine", was included in the soundtrack for the film Exit Wounds.[4]

The song has also been translated into German by songwriter Lukas Hilbert; this version, entitled "Mein Tag, Mein Licht," has been performed by artists such as Jazzkantine and Yvonne Catterfeld. Another German version, "Allem Anschein nach bist Du's", was published in 2003 by Stefan Gwildis.

Use in pop culture

In addition to DMX's "No Sunshine," the song has also been in the soundtracks of films Notting Hill, Old School, Amy, Crooklyn, and Munich.

On television, the song is briefly heard in the animated series Drawn Together (episode "Dirty Pranking No. 2"), during the sound analysis in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Anonymous," and LAX (episode "Secret Santa"). It was sung karaoke-style on the USA Network show, Monk, by Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) in the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas." The song was also briefly played at the end of an episode of One on One, with Kyla Pratt.

In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air season 4 finale The Philadelphia Story Will played it on a diner jukebox and danced to it eventually striking the unit with one hand at the end of the repetitive chorus, which made it sound as if the record was skipping.

"Ain't No Sunshine" was used as music for a rumba in So You Think You Can Dance during season 3, performed by Lauren Gottlieb and Dominic Sandoval. Kris Allen covered the song during the eighth season and also the finale of American Idol. Fellow Idol contestants Christina Christian (Season 1) and Aaron Kelly (Season 9) also performed the song on the show. At Last sung their version on the talent showcase America's Got Talent, and later released it as a single on the web.

"Ain't No Sunshine" was used in a major television public service announcement in Australia for skin cancer. Current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell have both used the song as entrance music for their fights.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Ain't No Sunshine". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  2. ^ a b c Ain't No Sunshine : Rolling Stone
  3. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/500songs/page/3
  4. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242445/soundtrack
  5. ^ http://www.trackitdown.net/genre/drum_and_bass/track/380454.html
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