Lyrics to
Tender Things

This version of Tender Things was released by Bill Withers in 1977.

Our About Bill Withers page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Tender Things from 1977 as well as all of the other lyrics from Bill Withers that we have in our lyrics database.

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Sweet and tender things
Are so much nicer than silly games
Softness
Makes it easier to smile

It’s better to remember things
That make the sun shine in your memory
There’s clouds enough for you to see
Smile for me and take a look around

And you know that you’re in love when things
Are better than you thought they’d ever be
Won’t you smile for me
I like what’s going down

And you know that you’re in love when things
Are better than you thought they’d ever be
Make a pretty smile for me
I like what’s going down (since you’ve been around)

Sweet and tender things
Makes you feel better than playing games
Softness
Makes it easier to smile

You’re in love when things
Are better than you thought they’d ever be
Smile for me
I sure do like what’s going down (since you’ve been around)

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Bill Withers has released many songs over the years besides Tender Things. Bill Withers released songs from 1971 to 1985 spanning across albums like Just As I Am, Still Bill, Live At Carnegie Hall, #NAME?, Making Music, Making Friends, Naked & Warm, Menagerie, 'Bout Love, and Watching You, Watching Me. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Bill Withers.

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About Lyrics and Tender Things by Bill Withers

When you decide to study the lyrics to Tender Things, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1977 song by Bill Withers. Some of the lyrics to Tender Things have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Bill Withers and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Tender Things if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Tender Things" means the words set to the music of Tender Things, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Bill Withers. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Tender Things and the lyrics to Tender Things are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Bill Withers who came here looking just for the lyrics to Tender Things, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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