Lean On Me

HEATHER BARNES
Oct 10, 2024
1 min read

Updated: May 12

"Lean on Me" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. It was a number one single on both the soul and Billboard Hot 100 charts, the latter chart for three weeks in July 1972.Billboard ranked it as the No. 7 song of 1972. It was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2010. Numerous other versions have been recorded, and it is one of only nine songs to have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with versions recorded by two different artists. Bill Withers' childhood in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, was the inspiration for "Lean on Me", which he wrote after he had moved to Los Angeles, and found himself missing the strong community ethic of his hometown. He had lived in a decrepit house in the poor section of his town.

This arrangement is by Mark De Lisser, arranger and choral director of the ACM Gospel Choir.