This version of 'Lean on Me' is known for the addition of the faux-reggae refrain 'We be jammin'! We be jammin'!'. It won a Grammy award in 1987 for Bill Withers, as the writer, for Best R&B Song. 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'. The R&B group Club Nouveau covered the song with go-go beat and took it to number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in March 1987. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.Ĭlub Nouveau version 'Lean on Me' ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Raymond Jackson – Wurlitzer electric piano, string arrangement.

Some radio versions cut the number of 'Call Me's' to six times before the song's end. 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. Withers's version is noted for its bridge section: ('Just call on me, brother'), 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. A string section was also included as well. Several members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were used for the recording session in 1972. Withers stated in the same interview that he made an effort to keep the lyrics simple. 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.''

'I bought a little piano and I was sitting there just running my fingers up and down the piano. Withers recalled to SongFacts the original inspiration for the song: He had lived in a decrepit house in the poor section of his town. īill Withers's 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. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with versions recorded by two different artists. Numerous other versions have been recorded, and it is one of only nine songs to have reached No. It is ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone 's list of ' The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time'. 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.

It was released in April 1972 as the first single from his second album, Still Bill. ' Lean on Me' is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. This article is about the Bill Withers song.

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