Lean on Me (song)


"Lean on Me" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. It was released in April 1972 as the first single from his second album, Still Bill. It was a number one single on both the soul singles and the Billboard Hot 100; the latter chart for three weeks in July 1972. Billboard ranked it as the No. 7 song of 1972. It is ranked number 208 on Rolling Stones list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Numerous other versions have been recorded, and it is one of only nine songs to have reached No. 1 on the US Singles Charts with versions recorded by two different artists.

Background and writing

Bill Withers' childhood in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, was the inspiration for "Lean on Me", which he wrote after he had moved to Los Angeles and found himself missing the strong community ethic of his hometown. He had lived in a decrepit house in the poor section of his town.
Withers recalled to SongFacts the original inspiration for the song:
"I bought a little piano and I was sitting there just running my fingers up and down the piano. In the course of doing the music, that phrase crossed my mind, so then you go back and say, 'OK, I like the way that phrase, Lean On Me, sounds with this song.'"

Withers stated in the same interview that he made an effort to keep the lyrics simple.
Several members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were used for the recording session in 1972. A string section was also included as well.
Withers' version is noted for its bridge section:, as well as the coda section, where the words ”call me” are repeated a total of 14 times, before the song ends on a cadenza on the strings. Several radio stations, as well as the single version, fade out during the repeated coda, due to time limits as well as the repetition of the lyrics. Some radio versions cut the number of "Call Me's" to six times before the song's end.

Personnel

7-inch single
  1. "Lean on Me" – 3:45
  2. "Better Off Dead" – 2:13

    Charts

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position

Year-end charts

Certifications

Club Nouveau version

The R&B group Club Nouveau covered the song and took it to number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in March 1987. It also reached number one on the dance charts, and number two on the Black Singles charts, kept out of the top spot by Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love". It won a Grammy award in 1987 for Bill Withers, as the writer, for Best R&B Song. This version of "Lean on Me" is known for the addition of the faux-reggae refrain "We be jammin'! We be jammin'!", which was highly acclaimed as ingenious and revolutionary at the time.
The song ranked at number 94 in VH1's 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders of the 80s.

Track listings

7-inch single
  1. "Lean on Me" – 3:58
  2. "Pump It Up " – 2:38
12-inch single
  1. "Lean on Me" " – 7:42
  2. "Lean on Me" – 5:56
  3. "Pump It Up " – 4:51
  4. "Pump It Up " – 2:38

    Charts

Chart Peak
position
Australia 5

Certifications

2-4 Family version

In 1999, 2-4 Family released "Lean on Me ", a remake with a hip hop arrangement and additional lyrics. Epic Records published a 12-inch single and a CD maxi single in Germany.
In 2008, several years after the dissolution of 2-4 Family, founding band-member Mike Johnson performed the song with backing vocalists and dancers at the Eurovision Song Contest in Bulgaria.

Track listings

12-inch single

  1. "Lean on Me " – 3:58
  2. "Lean on Me " – 4:04
  3. "9 Lives" – 4:06
  4. "Stay" – 4:12
  5. "Lean on Me " – 6:38
  6. "Stay" – 4:15

    CD maxi single

  7. "Lean on Me " – 3:38
  8. "Lean on Me " – 4:04
  9. "Lean on Me " – 6:38
  10. "Lean on Me " – 3:58
  11. "Stay" – 4:15
  12. "9 Lives" – 4:06

    Charts

Year-end charts

In popular culture

Also in 2020, Avi Kaplan, the former bass singer of Pentatonix, released a cover of Lean on Me, originally as a single. The song also features on his Lean on Me EP, due to be released on 21st August 2020