There are certain songs that will forever hold a place in the American canon of music, which everyone somehow knows the words to and are usually on the set list of DJs at weddings and other celebratory events. "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine" are among this list of classics, and they are both credited to singer/songwriter/guitarist Bill Withers.Bill Withers was the youngest of six children born in Slab Folk, WV and was raised by his mother and grandmother. Withers moved to Los Angeles to pursue music after a nine-year term in the Navy, and he worked at the Boeing aircraft company crafting toilet seats by day and recording demos by night until he was introduced to Sussex Records president Clarence Avant and began to solely focus on music. Withers Stax Records' Booker T. Jones produced his debut album, Just As I Am, which included the single "Ain't No Sunshine" and went gold, earning Withers a Grammy for Best R&B Song. The successful single was followed by "Grandma Hands," which also made the R&B charts in 1971 and was later covered by the Staple Singers.The Wither's classic, "Lean on Me" was written from the soul singer's experience growing up in a coal mining town in his native West Virginia, and the instrumentals hark from the hymns Withers heard while at a church as a young child, as well as from inventive chord progressions that the singer came upon while fooling around on his Wurlitzer electric piano. "Lean on Me," part of Wither's Still Bill album (which also included successful single "Use Me",) went gold in 1972 and was the title theme of the 1989 film starring Morgan Freeman. Over the next decade Bill Withers continued to release albums and successful singles, such as "Just the Two of Us," his 1977 Grammy-winning duet with Grover Washington, which has allowed his contribution to the golden era of soul to be immeasurable.