Just As I Am / Still Bill / + Justments / Making Music / Live At Carnegie Hall

Bill Withers’ first five albums land here across three CDs: Just As I Am, Still Bill, Live At Carnegie Hall, +’Justments and Making Music. It’s a brilliant run, bringing together studio essentials and a landmark live set, with liner notes by journalist Charles Waring.

The collection features some of Withers’ biggest songs, including Ain’t No Sunshine, Lean On Me, Use Me, Kissing My Love, The Same Love That Made Me Laugh and Make Love To Your Mind.

Just As I Am was essentially Booker T. and the MGs minus Steve Cropper, with Stephen Stills stepping in. Released in spring 1972, Still Bill followed Lean On Me, later covered more than 200 times, from Michael Bolton to Garth Brooks.

Live At Carnegie Hall included previously unreleased songs I Can’t Write Left-Handed and World Keeps Going Around. +’Justments spent 34 weeks on the U.S. chart. In 1975, Columbia Records bought the Sussex masters; Making Music, retitled Making Friends in the UK, was produced by Larry Nash, who had also worked with Joni Mitchell.