Do you have a problem? I might understand it. You can lean on me, and we can all lean on Bill Withers. He’ll help us carry on. This he promised us in his hit song, “Lean on Me.”
The slow piano, humming and Withers’ plain, echoed voice bring in the song, but his voice gets strong during the verse. The singer is accompanied by strings but the piano is much more noticeable here and keeps the song at a soulful, almost church choir-esque pace.
The song immediately changes pace during the chorus though, as slow beat machines and bass lines make for a fast tempo. “You just call on me brother, when you need a hand/We all need somebody to lean on/I just might have a problem that you’d understand/We all need somebody to lean on” are the lines that you almost want to dance to. But then the verses slow it down again with those instantly recognizable lines: “Lean on me, when you’re not strong and I’ll be your friend/I’ll help you carry on.”
In 1987, R&B group Club Nouveau gave this song a whole new generation of fans with their cover of “Lean on Me.” The chart-topping group implemented that classical 80s dance beat to speed up the tempo of the Withers classic. There’s massive snares and a thumping bass line along with other little drum beats everywhere to compliment the groups harmonizing vocals. My only gripe with this song is that the beat stays exactly the same throughout the verses and choruses; I would’ve liked them to change it up a bit. About four minutes into it, the song takes this Caribbean twist which isn’t bad but perhaps if they spread it out a little bit more throughout the song, the beat wouldn’t sound so repetitive.
I totally forgot about this great cover until I saw a countown recently on Vh1 Prom song one-hit wonders or something along those lines. I remember always loving this song, and for good reason too! It’s a great song except for that little bit of repetitive-ness. I’ll argue that the song is such a fun track that you won’t even care about the repetitiveness … You’ll be too busy doing “The Alf” and “The Running Man!”
Bonus Video: Club Nouveau “perform” (kinda badly) “Lean on Me” on Joan Rivers