Lyrics to
Harlem

This version of Harlem was released by Bill Withers in 1971.

Visit the Bill Withers Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the Harlem lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by Bill Withers.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Bill Withers or about the 1970s in general.

Summer night in Harlem, Man it’s really hot! Well it’s too hot to sleep and too hot to eat. I don’t care if I die or not!

Winter night in Harlem, ooh ooh radiator won’t get hot, and that mean ole landlord he don’t care if i freeze to death or not!

Saturday night in Harlem, AHH ever’ry thing’s alright. You can really swang and shake your pretty thang, the parties are out of sight.

Sunday morning here in Harlem now eve’ry body’s all dressed up. The heathen folk just gettin home from the party and the good folk just got up. Our crooked delegation wants a donation to send the preacher to the holy land hey hey lawd honey don’t give your money to that lyin, cheatin man..

Ah Saturday night in Harlem, AHH ever’ry thing’s alright. You can really swang and shake your pretty thang, the parties are out of sight.

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Bill Withers has released many songs over the years besides Harlem. 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.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Harlem by Bill Withers

The lyrics for Harlem are defined as the words making up the song released by Bill Withers in 1971. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Harlem have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Bill Withers and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Harlem by Bill Withers if you think through it. 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 Harlem" means the words set to the music of Harlem, 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 Harlem and the lyrics to Harlem 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 Harlem, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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