Patricia Barber, Aretha Franklin, Hootie & the Blowfish, Al Jarreau, Aaron Neville, and Dr. Evil have all covered singer-songwriter and guitarist Bill Withers, and "Ain’t No Sunshine," "Use Me," and "Just the Two of Us" are among the Withers ’70s hits that have endured. There have been a couple of previous best-ofs; now Columbia/Legacy has released the 1972 Still Bill as part of its Rhythm & Soul series, along with the somewhat spotty 1977 Menagerie.

On Still Bill, you can find the slinky, vaguely bossa "Use Me," and "Lean on Me," the gospel-tinged ode to friendship, with its instantly recognizable piano intro. Even the lesser-known songs have a fresh familiarity — check the pairing of a minor-blues guitar groove with post-break-up lyrics on "I Don’t Want You on My Mind." The scratchy wah-wah guitar and suspiciously thumping bass line on "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?" combine to form a questioning rhythm under the lyrics about a cheating lover who is "too much for one man, but not enough for two." And Withers’s smooth yet slightly grainy voice booms and croons like a preacher’s.

Still Bill includes two tracks from his 1973 concert at Carnegie Hall, an unplugged styling of the album’s funk-lite opener, "Lonely Town, Lonely Street," and a version of "Let Me in Your Life" that’s preceded by a minute’s worth of lost-love stage banter. In the new liner notes, Withers — who aside from a few one-off appearances with smooth-jazz saxist Grover Washington Jr. in the ’90s virtually dropped out of the music business after 1985 — writes, "I’m 64 . . . do you still love me?" Well, yes.