In 2007, Still Bill was included in The Guardian 's list of "1,000 albums to hear before you die", with an accompanying essay that said the album "contains two of [Withers'] most epochal and best-loved compositions 'Lean on Me' and 'Who Is He (And What Is He to You)? Through concert footage, journeys to his birthplace and interviews with music legends, his family and closest friends, this documentary presents the story of an artist who has written some of the most beloved songs of our time and who truly understands the heart and soul of a man.

It's an identity couched in keeping it real, the very inclination that ultimately led Withers to retire in the mid-'80s rather than bend to industry pressures or risk credibility. Reviewing years later in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau expressed more enthusiasm about Still Bill, saying that Withers is "also plenty raunchy and he can rock dead out". Then there's the quality of the songwriting, which is as assured on the grooving "Lonely Town, Lonely Street" as it is on the suspicious, paranoid "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?Brass and woodwinds — which in this piece carry much of the thematic load — are particularly well reproduced.

On September 7, 1972, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having recorded at least 500,000 copies sold. That grounding forever separates Withers from other contemporary soul greats – and stamps Still Bill with a conversational nature and egoless approachability. These characteristics – along with Withers' strong singing, hybrid arrangements, and deceptively simple songwriting – have allowed the album to endure to the point where it sounds as fresh today as in 1972.

Tom Moon included it in a similar publication, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008), citing the album as "one of the most eloquent records" in rhythm and blues. For example, drummer James Gadson locks Kissing My Love into a killer shuffle before Benorce Blackmon’s heavily wah wah’ed guitar weaves its understated magic. When he sang of hurt, the need for love and solidarity, you knew he was talking from first-hand experience. I did a comparison to USE ME and LEAN ON ME on the Greatest Hits from Mofi and those two tracks are much more dynamic with more bass and really just sound warmer and more appealing to me on the Greatest Hits album. Included by The Guardian on its “1,000 Albums to Hear Before You Die” list (2007) as well as in Tom Moon’s 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die book (2008), its contemporary standing as one of history’s most venerated soul efforts eclipses the positive reception it enjoyed in the early ‘70s.

It’s an identity couched in keeping it real, the very inclination that ultimately led Withers to retire in the mid-’80s rather than bend to industry pressures or risk credibility. This high level of songwriting is sustained throughout the record, making this probably his best record ever.This high level of songwriting is sustained throughout the record, making this probably his best album ever. With regards to "Still Bill", the credits for the Sussex/Columbia box states "mastered from the original analog tapes by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios in NYC except for Just As I Am, Still Bill and Menagerie mastered by Joseph M. Grown-up soul at its finest This was the LP on which the 38-year-old Withers fully came into his own. What attracted me more than the richer sound palette here, though, is his words: dialectic, poetic, but also simple. Writing for Rolling Stone in 1972, Vince Aletti regarded it as an improvement over Withers' debut album Just as I Am, particularly because of the singer's production, which sustains even the less exceptional songs here.