Friday, September 2, 2011

Throwback - Bill Withers - Grandma's Hands (Acoustic Live)

William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands". His life was recently the subject of the documentary film Still Bill.




"Grandma's Hands" is a song written by Bill Withers about his own grandmother. It was included on his 1971 debut album Just as I Am, and was also released as a single, reaching number 18 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart and 42 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song has since been covered by many other artists, including Al Jarreau, Livingston Taylor, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight, Barbra Streisand, Francine Bell, Will Downing, Take 6, Marti Pellow, Starsailor, Gil Scott-Heron, Paddy Casey in Today FM's Even Better Than The Real Thing and Ron Kenoly. It is also sampled for the hook of Blackstreet's "No Diggity" and "Shout" by Shout for England.

In 2007, well-known keyboardist Jeff Lorber covered the song from his album "He Had a Hat." The song featured Eric Benét on vocals, Gerald Albright and Tom Scott on saxophones.

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