Bill Withers

"Lean on Me" is the once-in-a-lifetime kind of tune that most songwriters dream of crafting, if they're lucky. Covered by Club Nouveau, Al Green, Tom Jones, Ike & Tina Turner, Anne Murray, and scads of others, Bill's original (from Still Bill) is still the gold standard. Its middle a cappella couplet, sung over bass and percussion, still produces goose bumps some three decades later. And his rough-edged baritone cuts to the emotional heart of "Use Me," one of the most potent love juju songs ever committed to vinyl.

It may well be that Withers' second-best album of all time was his Live at Carnegie Hall performance from October 6, 1972. "In about an hour and a half," said Withers, "that audience transformed us from nervous, serious musicians into free and happy people." Try the half-story/half-song "Grandma's Hands" or "I Can't Write Left-Handed" for a glimpse into the heart of the Troubadour of Soul.

They call him the Troubadour of Soul, because his songs tell the story of a slave's grandson who carved a path from Slab Fork, West Virginia, to Carnegie Hall, and his stories have a universal resonance, white or black, urban or suburban. Stories about a powerful love drug making us act the fool, desperate for the next fix. Stories about a cherished grandma who represents the innocence of a youth we can't recapture. Stories about people reaching out in friendship and to those in need. Though his career spans a mere eight albums, Bill Withers' resonant baritone still echoes through soul music's all-time hall of fame.