A Terrific Song With Two Words Repeated TWENTY-SIX Times!
There are so many great stories about unique songs, raucous recording sessions and more, and here’s one that tells the story of how an unfinished song became a legend!
At the time, Singer / Songwriter Bill Withers was trying to make a career in music while working at a factory making toilet seats for Boeing 747 planes.
Withers wrote “Ain’t No Sunshine” after watching the 1962 film Days of Wine and Roses. The movie, starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, explores a couple’s downward spiral into toxic alcoholism. Withers likened the characters’ destructive but magnetic codependency to “going back for seconds on rat poison”—missing someone or something that isn’t actually good for you.
The song was released in July 1971 and became a smash hit, propelling Withers into a career in music….but it’s the lyrics of the song that make it so memorable – or more precisely, TWO WORDS!
Let’s take you to England for a live performance on the Old Grey Whistle Test TV show – a gorgeous song, and get ready to hear two words in it repeated 26 times::
An Iconic Song’s “Placeholder!”
As you heard, at one point in the song Withers repeats himself over and over and over again.
Yes, the bridge features the phrase “I know” – repeated 26 times. And it was never supposed to be in the song!
The now iconic 26-time repetition of “I know” was originally just a temporary placeholder that producer Booker T. Jones insisted on keeping!
Withers had not finished writing the lyrics for the third verse and used the “I know” repetition as a vocal placeholder, planning to fix it later, but they kept it in and it’s now iconic!
Withers initially intended to write more lyrics but was advised by the Producer and other Musicians to leave the repetitive phrase, which became an iconic part of the song.
Here are the lyrics to the entire song:
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.
It’s not warm when she’s away.
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
and she’s always gone too long
anytime she goes away.
Wonder this time where she’s gone,
wonder if she’s gone to stay
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
and this house just ain’t no home
anytime she goes away.
“And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know”
Hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone,
but ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone,
ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone,
only darkness everyday.
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone,
and this house just ain’t no home
anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
The song was a smash hit and changed his life forever…it reached #3 on the Billboard charts.
Withers went on to have a long career in music but he is most wellknown for this one…he died in March 2020 at the age of 81.
I love stories of accidental moments like this that result in a timeless classic: like when these two got together to see if they could make some music:
What happens when you mix the band Queen, iconic Singer David Bowie and lots and lots of wine? Read the madness behind the making of the iconic song “Under Pressure!”
The music world was stunned when Bowie died ten years ago…here is an indepth homage I shared about his life and music:
As for Queen, they also had some incredibly iconic music as well – see more about the band and their masterpiece “Bohemian Rhapsody” here:
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Thanks so much for reading and if you like this story, share on social media!
Categories: 70's Music, Art, Music, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities, True Hollywood Mystery
johnrieber 
It’s a great song, and Jones got it right. The words work!
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Of course, I do know this song but I had no idea about the origin of that repetitive wording. I wonder what lyrics they could have been 💗
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That is a cool back story….I have always loved the song…..thanx for the memory. chuq
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Thanks for teh comment! I just heard it on the radio and wondered about it – always fun to find out interesting stuff about great music!
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So very true. chuq
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The perfect song to set the mood.
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every time i hear this song , i fall in love with it again. thanks for sharing the ‘i know’s’ back story
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Delightful ‘homework’ again – don’t know the song but remember the ‘Wine and Roses’ film well and actually have seen/listened to quite a bit of the Queen and Freddie Mercury . . . your posts are very ‘educational’ so late in my life 🙂
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That is a very cool story. I love that song. The movie, Days of Wine and Roses, really impacted me as a young person. Perhaps that’s why only I drink in moderation.
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That is a devastating movie, and I never knew it inspired him a decade later! Thanks for your note and for reading!
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There cannot be anyone over the age of 50 who doesn’t know this song or has some memory of hearing it. I was 19 when it was released, and I remember buying a copy not long after I first heard it played on the radio. Shared on Twitter, John.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thanks for the share Pete..I had no idea he was inspired by “Days Of Wine And Roses!”
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That’s one of my favourite songs, and it was interesting to learn the inspiration was “The Days of Wine and Roses”, a profoundly sad movie. I had no idea those repetitive lyrics were only meant to be used as placeholders either. Thanks for the enlightenment! 🙂
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Thanks for the note! I had no idea about the film either, I I was just remembering the long repetition of that phrase and did some research – greae hearing from you!
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