Club Nouveau, Lean On Me | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 185^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Lean On Me” by Club Nouveau. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 185^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Lean On Me”, performed by 🎙 Club Nouveau. 

“Sometimes in our lives / We all have pain / We all have sorrow / But if we are wise / We know that there’s always tomorrow / Lean on me.” Indeed, indeed, 🎙 Bill Withers. The late, great musician penned and performed a masterpiece with 🎵 “Lean On Me”, which has been covered many, many times.  Perhaps the best cover of this timeless classic was by R&B collective 🎙 Club Nouveau on their 1986, platinum album, 💿 Life, Love & Pain.  While Club Nouveau preserves the sanctity of the melody throughout the course of “Lean On Me,” they transform the third track of Life, Love & Pain into a high-energy dance track that’s idiomatic of the 1980s through and through. “Lean On Me,” in their hands, spent two weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was certified gold by the RIAA.  Furthermore, the collective was nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Performance for a Duo or Group with Vocal.  Notably, Withers went on to win a Grammy as the songwriter of “Lean on Me” for Best Rhythm & Blues Song.

The Club Noveau rendition of “Lean On Me” begins traditionally, sounding much like an updated version of the 1970s classic. Prior to the first verse,  the tempo increases, led by those signature, high-energy, 80s boxy drums.  Even if, by today’s standards, the drum programming is dated, there’s something charming and truly special about it. Beyond the drums, the keys and synths are ear-catching, radicalizing the soul classic. The rhythm is insane – in the most positive way possible! Those keys bite – they are in your face! With the melody intact, as previously stated, among the most interesting, different sections of this take incorporates some reggae vibes: “We be jamming / We be jamming.” Fo’ sho’! All told, Club Nouveau transform 🎵 “Lean On Me”,  among the best songs of all time, into their own legitimate hit.

🎙 Club Nouveau • 💿 Life, Love & Pain • 🏷 Tommy Boy Music, LLC • 🗓 1986

Club Nouveau, Lean On Me: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 185 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Tommy Boy Music, LLC; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]