Bill Withers

Clarence Avant of Sussex Records and later Tabu Records, asked Booker T. Jones to produce Bill Withers first album.

Musician Booker T. Jones Recalls “Ain’t No Sunshine”

Booker T. Jones, whose “Green Onions” album was enshrined in the National Recording Registry in 2011, was already a well-established musician and producer in Memphis and Los Angeles when a music executive sent an airplane factory worker named Bill Withers to Jones’ Malibu home in the early 1970s.

“He was wearing these overalls and some broke-ass boots; he was a carpenter,” Jones recalled in a recent interview. “Invited him into the living room. He picked up my guitar and started singing ‘Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone…’ ” he sings, then chuckles. “So he kept singing and I walked out of the living room and picked up the phone and started making phone calls.”

He said the man’s talent was just that obvious.

“It was a strong voice singing original music in a simple way, unpretentious, like his personality. And there he was, right there in my house. And he didn’t know he was a star,” Jones said.

Jones produced the song as well as arranging the strings that play a key part in the composition. The song was a hit upon its 1971 release, winning the Grammy for Best R&B song the following year, and going on to become a standard of the era.

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