I have a few requests I’ve been planning to play for the last several days, but songs just keep popping into my head that I really, really want to play now, so … I give in to myself sometimes! I’ll get around to the requests soon, but for now, let’s have us some Bill Withers, shall we?
Grover Washington was a very respected Jazz saxophone player who died of a heart attack in 1999. Bill Withers is a songwriter and vocalist responsible for songs like Lean On Me and Ain’t No Sunshine. Withers sang lead on this, but it was credited to Washington and appeared on his album.
According to Withers …
“I’m a little snobbish about words, so they sent me this song and said ‘We want to do this with Grover, would you consider singing it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, if you’ll let me go in and try to dress these words up a little bit.’ Everybody that knows me is kind of used to me that way. I probably threw in the stuff like the crystal raindrops. The ‘Just The Two Of Us’ thing was already written. It was trying to put a tuxedo on it. I didn’t like what was said leading up to ‘Just The Two Of Us.'”
When Withers went in to record his vocals, it was the first time he met Washington. They were rarely together when they recorded this, and they never got to know each other very well. Withers admired Washington because Grover did the first cover version of any song he’d written – an instrumental version of Ain’t No Sunshine that appeared on his first album.
Just the Two of Us
Bill Withers
I see the crystal raindrops fall
And the beauty of it all
Is when the sun comes shining through
To make those rainbows in my mind
When I think of you sometime
And I wanna spend some time with you
Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us
(Just the two of us)
Just the two of us
Building castles in the sky
Just the two of us
You and I
We look for love, no time for tears
Wasted water’s all that is
And it don’t make no flowers grow
Good things might come to those who wait
Not for those who wait too late
We gotta go for all we know
Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us
(Just the two of us)
Just the two of us
Building them castles in the sky
Just the two of us
You and I
I hear the crystal raindrops fall
On the window down the hall
And it becomes the morning dew
And darling when the morning comes
And I see the morning sun
I wanna be the one with you
Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us, just
(Just the two of us)
Just the two of us
Building big castles way up high
Just the two of us
You and I
(Just the two of us)
(We can make it, just the two of us)
(Just the two of us)
Songwriters: Ralph Mac Donald / William Salter / William Harrison Withers Jr.
Medley: Just the Two of Us lyrics © Bleunig Music, BMG Rights Management
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