The debut album from the inimitable Bill Withers. Before this album, Bill Withers was a factory worker manufacturing bathrooms for 747s. He had been writing a song which he just couldn’t finish. He had a first verse, a second verse and a chorus but while thinking up lyrics for the third verse, he used placeholder lyrics. Simply singing the words “I know” over and over, 26 times in total. On the advice of fellow musicians, he just decided to leave the song that way, record it and see what happens.

Frustrated with how many black artists were pushed to perform “standards” written by white people who would make all the money, Bill Withers decided to write his own standards. And succeed he did, most notably with the iconic ‘Lean On Me.’