Following the death of soul icon Bill Withers last March 30, and its public announcement last April 3, online streams and equivalent sales of his singles skyrocketed, according to reports from Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
For April 3-5, Withers' hits raked in a total of 22.1 million streams for both video and audio on demand. It is equivalent to a 780% increase compared to 2.5 million streams recorded for the March 31 to April 2 period.
Bill Withers' 1972 uplifting track, "Lean On Me," stood out as the most-streamed among his hits after the sad news of his passing. It rose to 4.1 million combined streams from 496,000, posting an increase of 729%. "Lean On Me" is special among Withers' singles as it is his only number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, staying for three weeks at the top.
Another notable milestone for his 1972 hit track is that it is currently one of only nine songs to top the Hot 100 twice under different artists, the second being Club Nouveau's 1987 revival of the song. The 1987 reimagining of "Lean On Me" stayed for two weeks at the number one spot.
Following "Lean on Me" is his upbeat track "Lovely Day," which jumped to 3.1 million clicks from 431,000 or an increase of 628%. Withers' first released "Lovely Day" in 1978, peaking at No. 30 in the Hot 100. It was notable for Withers' 18-second sustained singing near the end of the song. "Lovely Day" was later revived in 1992 and given a hip-hop makeover, with rap verses, courtesy of The S.O.U.L System, then released as "It's Gonna Be A Lovely Day."
Other Bill Withers tracks earning a considerable boost over the past days were "Ain't No Sunshine" with 2.7 million views from the previous 559,000 or an increase of 389%; "Use Me" with 1.5 million hits from 156,000 or up by 842%. The Grover Washington, Jr. collaboration "Just The Two of Us" saw an increase of 119%, from 657,000 to 1.4 million streams.
The same period saw a total digital sales increase for Bill Withers' music by a staggering 7,159%, gathering a total of 83,000 downloads in the United States alone compared to 1,000 downloads from March 31 to April 2.
Bill Withers, while generally regarded as one of the best singer-songwriters of the soul and R&B genre, only had a professional career spanning fifteen years from 1970 to 1985. His last work was the studio album "Watching You, Watching Me" in 1985, which spawned the Top 40 hit "Oh Yeah!" His disillusionment with the music industry forced him to leave altogether.
In a 1985 interview with the Sun Sentinel, he said that he had difficulty getting his songs past the artist and repertoire department, adding that "two of three singles released from the album (Watching You, Watching Me) so far were rejected in 1982." He also shared his difficulty accepting how CBS, his record label, started releasing records Mr. T while he was rejected continuously and can't put out his music.
Even after his early retirement from the music industry, Bill Withers would remain an influential figure in the scene, with his songs sampled and revived by artists from the succeeding generations. He won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1988 as the writer behind "Lean On Me," then covered by Club Nouveau. This single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame later in 2007.
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