Still Bill

Still Bill was met with positive reviews. Writing for Rolling Stone in 1972, Vince Aletti regarded it as an improvement over Withers' debut album Just as I Am, particularly because of the singer's production, which sustains even the less exceptional songs here. "On the whole", Aletti claimed, "it's a tougher, more relaxed, more assured album ... Nothing is thrown away, everything works with an unexpected clarity and strength."{{cite magazine|last=Aletti|first=Vince|authorlink=Vince Aletti|date=June 8, 1972|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001023317/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/billwithers/albums/album/270598/review/5941251/still_bill|archivedate=October 1, 2007|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/billwithers/albums/album/270598/review/5941251/still_bill|title=Bill Withers: Still Bill|accessdate=October 1, 2007|url-status=dead|magazine=Rolling Stone}} Billboard hailed Still Bill as justification for the critical hype surrounding his debut and live performances, while observing "plenty of sunshine" in the music, highlighting "Lean on Me", "Who is He (And What Is He to You)", "Kissing My Love", and "Lonely Town, Lonely Street".{{cite magazine|magazine=Billboard|title=Album Reviews|page=51|date=May 13, 1972|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fkUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51|accessdate=September 10, 2019|via=Google Books}} Reviewing in Creem, Robert Christgau gave the record a B-plus and said, "Withers has created the most credible persona of any of the new middle-class male soul singers, avoiding Marvin Gaye's occasional vapidity, Donny Hathaway's overkill, and Curtis Mayfield's blackness-mongering. He sounds straight, strong, compassionate. This album moves out rhythmically, too". However, the critic concluded with reservations about its "missing some essential excitement".{{cite magazine|last=Christgau|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Christgau|date=August 1972|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/crm7208.php|title=The Christgau Consumer Guide|magazine=Creem|accessdate=January 19, 2018}}

Commercially, Still Bill produced two hit singles: "Lean on Me" (number one on both the Billboard pop and R&B charts in mid 1972) and "Use Me" (number two on the same charts later that year).{{AllMusic |class=album |id=r22133 |tab=charts-awards/billboard-single |label="Still Bill > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles" |accessdate=2011}} On September 7, 1972, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having recorded at least 500,000 copies sold.{{cite certification |region=United States |artist=Bill Withers |title=Still Bill}}

{{Album ratings

| title = Retrospective professional reviews

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r22133|tab=review |label="Bill Withers: Still Bill > Review |first=Stephen Thomas |last=Erlewine |accessdate=23 October 2011}}

| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev2Score = A{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: W|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=W&bk=70|accessdate=March 22, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}

| rev3 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev3Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Larkin |editor1-first=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=2007 |publisher=Omnibus |page=1519 |edition=5th concise |ol=11913831M}}

| rev4 = The Great Rock Discography

| rev4Score = 7/10{{cite book |last1=Strong |first1=Martin C. |title=The Great Rock Discography |date=2004 |publisher=Canongate |location=New York |page=1683 |ol=18807297M |edition=7th}}

| rev5 = Mojo

| rev5Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Mojo|title=Review|page=114|date=August 2003}}

| rev6 = Music Story

| rev6Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|title=Bill Withers|url=http://www.music-story.com/bill-withers|website=Music Story|language=fr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107070337/http://www.music-story.com/bill-withers|archive-date=January 7, 2010|access-date=July 24, 2024}}

| rev7 = MusicHound R&B

| rev7Score = 2.5/5{{cite book |editor1-last=Graff |editor1-first=Gary |editor2-last=Freedom du Lac |editor2-first=Josh |editor3-last=McFarlin |editor3-first=Jim |title=MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide |date=1998 |publisher=Visible Ink |location=Detroit |page=624 |ol=690592M}}

| rev8 = Rolling Stone

| rev8Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/270598/review/7264530/stillbill |title=Bill Withers: Still Bill |first=David |last=Wild |date=May 5, 2005 |magazine=Rolling Stone |publisher=Straight Arrow |issn=0035-791X |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071106072341/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/270598/review/7264530/stillbill |archivedate=November 6, 2007}}

| rev9 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev9Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |date=2004 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |page=884 |edition=4th rev. |ol=21112308M}}

| rev10 = Uncut

| rev10Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Uncut|title=Review|page=92|date=February 2003}}

}}

Retrospective appraisals have also been positive. Reviewing years later in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau expressed more enthusiasm about Still Bill, saying that Withers is "also plenty raunchy and he can rock dead out". He went on to write that the "self-production here is adamantly spare, with Ray Jackson furnishing the hook of the year on 'Use Me,' one of the few knowledgeable songs about sex our supposedly sexy music has ever produced". PopMatters critic Andy Hermann wrote a review in anticipation of the album's CD reissue by Columbia Records in 2003, calling it "essential listening for any fan of early '70s funk and R&B". Hermann also highlighted the contributions of session musicians from the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, crediting them for having helped Withers develop "a unique style of bluesy funk that was the perfect soundtrack to the emotional drama [that] leaked out from around the corners of Withers' laid-back West Virginia drawl".{{cite magazine|last=Hermann|first=Andy|date=January 23, 2003|url=https://www.popmatters.com/withersbill-stillbill-2496113256.html|title=Bill Withers: Still Bill|website=PopMatters|accessdate=September 10, 2019}} Writing in 2005, David Wild of Rolling Stone found the album "finer and funkier" than Just as I Am and "still a stone-soul masterpiece", while Stylus Magazine{{'}}s Derek Miller called it "a stone-cold, gold-plated soul classic ... far and away Withers' best", and more than comparable to enduring LPs from the same period, such as Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul (1969), Mayfield's Roots (1971), Stevie Wonder's Talking Book (1972), and Al Green's Call Me (1973). Miller added that Still Bill exemplified Withers' musical daring, having fused soul, blues, and "muscular funk" into a sound that finds "form between the lines … bound by the heated muscle of its rhythms and the satin berth of its softer moments".{{cite magazine|last=Miller|first=Derek|date=July 26, 2005|url=http://stylusmagazine.com/feature_ID_1762.html|title=Bill Withers - Still Bill - On Second Thought|magazine=Stylus Magazine|accessdate=September 10, 2019}}

In 2007, Still Bill was included in The Guardian{{'}}s list of "1,000 albums to hear before you die", with an accompanying essay that said the album "contains two of [Withers'] most epochal and best-loved compositions 'Lean on Me' and 'Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?' but [that] the blend of patient, understated, insistently funky acoustic playing is just as vital".{{cite news|date=November 22, 2007|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/nov/22/1000tohearbeforeyoudie3|title=Artists beginning with W|newspaper=The Guardian|accessdate=September 10, 2019}} Tom Moon included it in a similar publication, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008), citing the album as "one of the most eloquent records" in rhythm and blues. "These are shades-of-gray stories, full of a mature understanding of human nature", Moon observed, before concluding that, "even when reflecting on weighty matters, Withers cultivates a mood of unflappable calm, making everything sound like a lazy summer evening on the front porch."{{cite book|last=Moon|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Moon|page=[https://archive.org/details/1000recordingsto00moon_0/page/871 871]|title=1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life List|publisher=Workman|year=2008|isbn=978-0761139638}} In 2020, Still Bill ranked number 333 on Rolling Stone{{'}}s revised edition of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/bill-withers-still-bill-1062900/ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Still Bill"]. Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 19, 2022.

• Bill Withers – vocals, guitar, acoustic piano (5), acoustic guitar (11, 12)
• Ray Jackson – acoustic piano, clavinet, Wurlitzer electric piano, horn and string arrangements
• Benorce Blackmon – guitar
• Melvin Dunlap – bass guitar
• James Gadson – drums, percussion
• Bobbye Hall – percussion (11, 12)

• Bill Withers – producer (1-12)
• Ray Jackson – producer (1-12)
• Benorce Blackmon – producer (1-10)
• Melvin Dunlap – producer (1-10)
• James Gadson – producer (1-10)
• Bob Hughes – engineer
• Phil Schier – engineer, remixing
• Michael Mendel – art direction
• Maurer Productions – art direction
• Milton Sincoff – package design
• Hal Wilson – photography

2003 Reissue Credits

• Leo Sacks – producer
• Steve Berkowitz – A&R
• Darren Salmieri – A&R coordinator
• Joseph M. Palmaccio – mastering
• Lisa Buckler – product manager
• Maurice Joshua – product manager
• Triana D'Orazio – packaging manager
• Howard Fritzon – art direction
• Tim Morse – design
• Harry Goodwin – photography
• Bob Gruen – photography
• Michael Ochs Archive – photography
• SMP/Globe Photos – photography
• Bill Withers – liner notes

;Studios

• Recorded at The Record Plant (Los Angeles, California).
• Bonus Tracks recorded live at Carnegie Hall (New York City, New York).
• 2003 reissue mastered at Sony Music Studios (New York City, New York).

• List of number-one R&B albums of 1972 (U.S.)

{{reflist|2}}

• {{discogs master|92896|type=album}}

{{Bill Withers}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1972 albums

Category:Bill Withers albums

Category:Sussex Records albums