PRS for Music Special International Award - Bill Withers

If you really can judge someone by the company he keeps, Bill Withers is doing just fine.

After all, this is a man who effectively walked away from the music industry frontline over 30 years ago. But when he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2015, no less a talent than Stevie Wonder was there to welcome him in. And when, later that year, a tribute concert was held in his honour at Carnegie Hall in New York, the world’s current biggest pop star, Ed Sheeran, came along to perform Ain’t No Sunshine.

Sheeran and Wonder knew what millions of others have found out over the years: Bill Withers writes songs that stay with you forever. So it doesn’t matter that he hasn’t made an album since 1985, because the songs he wrote before then still resonate through the ages.

So, rarely does a series of a talent show go by without a standout rendition of Ain’t No Sunshine or Lean On Me. No summer’s morning passes without radio programmers reaching for their worn out copy of Lovely Day. Film and TV soundtracks alike sizzle or smooch with She’s Lonely or Just The Two Of Us. Countless hip-hop hits have sampled his funky grooves. And both Presidents Obama and Clinton featured his songs in their pre-inaugural celebrations.

The PRS for Music Special International Award is presented in recognition of a songwriter with an outstanding career who’s been a major influence on the UK industry, and Withers also fits that Bill perfectly.

The UK has long adored his songs, in recent years regularly sending remixes of his greatest moments back into the charts. And the list of UK stars that have covered his songs includes not just Sheeran, but also Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, Sting, Mick Jagger and Morrissey.

Perfect company for Withers then, as always.