Song · Bill Withers
“Ain't No Sunshine” by Bill Withers
From the album Just As I Am (1971)
“Ain't No Sunshine” by Bill Withers appears on 13 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 2001 and 2026. It was first released in 1971 on the album Just As I Am. Its best result is #98 on the WYEP Top 500 Songs Countdown. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #227 indie & aaa song of all time and #112 of the '70s.
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Bill Withers was just getting started when "Ain't No Sunshine" turned up on Just As I Am, his 1971 debut, and it became his breakthrough. Booker T. Jones produced it and wrote the string arrangement, and he surrounded Withers with serious company: Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass, Al Jackson Jr. on drums and Stephen Stills on acoustic guitar. It was cut in Los Angeles, with Terry Manning adding overdubs in Memphis.
What they built is almost nothing, and that's the trick. The band barely touches the ground, the strings hover, and Withers sings with the plain, unvarnished ache of a man who has no use for ornament. The song climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and in 2024 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1022 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2004 | 217 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) | 885 |
| 2007 | 527 | WTMD | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time | 897 |
| 2012 | 98 | WYEP | WYEP Top 500 Songs Countdown | 500 |
| 2014 | 350 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2016 | 171 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2018 | 227 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2020 | 239 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 143 | WYEP | WYEP 2021 Labor Day Countdown | 168 |
| 2022 | 112 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2023 | 523 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2023 | 128 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of All Time | 909 |
| 2026 | 523 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: Ain't no Sunshine.
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