Song · Bill Withers
“Lovely Day” by Bill Withers
From the album Menagerie (1977)
“Lovely Day” by Bill Withers appears on 15 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 2009 and 2026. It was first released in 1977 on the album Menagerie. Its best result is #4 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #163 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"Lovely Day" came out on Columbia late in 1977, a single from Menagerie, Bill Withers' sixth album, and it's about as close as soul music gets to pure sunlight. Withers wrote it with Skip Scarborough and produced it with Clarence McDonald, who also arranged it and played keyboards, while Ray Parker Jr. handles guitar, Jerry Knight the bass and Russ Kunkel the drums, with Ralph MacDonald on percussion.
The groove barely raises its voice: an easy, rolling bass line, a lazy shuffle and Withers singing with the unhurried warmth of a man who has nowhere else he'd rather be. Then, near the end, he leans into a high E and just holds it, for 18 seconds, longer than any other top 40 hit in America. It went top ten in the UK, and in 2021 Rolling Stone placed it at No. 402 among the greatest songs ever.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 250 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2016 | 779 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Countdown 2016 | 913 |
| 2018 | 207 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2019 | 217 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2019 | 217 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
| 2020 | 133 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 79 | WYEP | WYEP 2021 Labor Day Countdown | 168 |
| 2022 | 580 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 12 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 55 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2023 | 52 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of All Time | 909 |
| 2024 | 326 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2024 | 276 | KEXP | The Best Opening Tracks of All Time | 738 |
| 2025 | 4 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
| 2026 | 223 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
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