Yacht Rock Essentials: “Just the Two of Us,” the Winning Collaboration Between Legends Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers

When you talk about the genre known as yacht rock, the word “smooth” usually pops up pretty quickly in conversation as a way of describing the music. That word applies to “Just the Two of Us,” the soulful 1980 collaboration between saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and singer/songwriter Bill Withers, perhaps more than any other song in the genre.

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What is the song about? And how did Withers become involved and help with the lyrics? Here’s a look back at “Just the Two of Us,” the smoothest of the smooth when it comes to the yacht rock pantheon.

Washington Crosses (over) the Billboard

Once upon a time in the ’70s, it was common for artists who had never stepped up to the microphone to deliver hit albums. Instrumental music was a force in that decade, with artists breaking out of their various genres to achieve mainstream success. And Grover Washington Jr. was one of the leading lights of that phenomenon.

Washington, who played the saxophone, began cranking out albums in the early ’70s that immediately set him apart in the jazz world. But it didn’t take long for his silky, R&B-infused sound to woo audiences who might not usually have picked up jazz records, which led to a great deal of mainstream success.

From 1975 through 1981, Washington churned out six albums that all went to the Top 40 of the Billboard album charts, where they would compete against vocal music and do quite well. He even hit the Top 10 with a pair of those records. But his biggest success, one which would receive some help from a noted vocalist, was yet to come.

The Saxophonist Meets the Singer

Bill Withers broke through in the early ’70s with his insightful songwriting and unshowy but powerful vocals, scoring smash hits like “Use Me,” “Lean on Me,” and “Ain’t No Sunshine.” By 1980, Withers, who was always reticent about the fame his music success brought him, had largely wound down his solo career. (He would release just one studio album in the ’80s before largely leaving the business behind.)

But he was coaxed by Washington to join him on a piece of music that had been written by Ralph McDonald (Washington’s producer) and William Salter and was distinguished by Washington’s gliding sax fills. There were already some lyrics in place to the song that would become “Just the Two of Us,” but Withers spruced them up, as he explained in an interview with Songfacts:

“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.’”

The Meaning Behind “Just the Two of Us”

The lyrics to “Just the Two of Us” are distinguished by Withers’ inimitable combination of graceful eloquence and no-nonsense wisdom. That’s evident in the first verse, which after its depiction of crystal raindrops pierced by sunlight, gets down to the brass tax: And I wanna spend some time with you.

The second verse delivers some more hard-earned truths about unnecessary sorrow: We look for love, no time for tears / Wasted water’s all that is / And it don’t make no flowers grow. Withers concludes by insisting this couple spends their time wisely: 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” helped Grover Washington Jr. cross over like never before, with a No. 2 pop single and a No. 5 album (Winelight) in 1980. It also gave us one more glimpse of Bill Withers’ unique talents before he ducked the spotlight for good. And it all went down so smooth.

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Photo by David Redfern/Redferns