[6] 1970s Glam Rock band 'MUD' recorded a cover of the song in 1976 that became a chart hit in the UK the same year.

Bill Withers' childhood in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia,[7] was the inspiration for "Lean on Me", which he wrote after he had moved to Los Angeles, and found himself missing the strong community ethic of his hometown.

The R&B group Club Nouveau covered the song with go-go beat and took it to number one, for two weeks, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1987.

[22] The song ranked at number 94 in VH1's 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders of the 80s (although Club Nouveau's follow-up single, "Why You Treat Me So Bad", would reach #39 on the Hot 100 in July 1987).

The choirs sang from: Elstree at Elstree Studios the studio just outside London where the main telethon was held,[59] Liverpool at Sefton Park,[59] Swansea from The Swansea University Bay Campus,[59] Bridlington at Bridlington Spa,[59] Dudley at the Black Country Living Museum,[59] Glasgow at BBC Pacific Quay,[59] Milton Keynes at Stadium MK,[59] Salisbury at Salisbury Arts Centre[59] and Belfast at Titanic[59] In 2020, the song was recorded by an ad hoc supergroup of Canadian musicians credited as ArtistsCAN, both in tribute to Withers' recent death and to raise funds for the Canadian Red Cross during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[60] Participating artists included Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé, Fefe Dobson, Scott Helman, Shawn Hook, Avril Lavigne, Geddy Lee, Marie-Mai, Sarah McLachlan, Johnny Orlando, Josh Ramsay, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tyler Shaw, Walk Off the Earth, Donovan Woods, and Olivia Lunny.