Soul singer needing Chitty on Contracts (4,7)

I believe the answer is:

bill withers

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'singer needing chitty on contracts' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'soul' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'soul' could be 'wit' (wit is a kind of soul) and 'wit' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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