| "Use Me" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Side A of the US single | ||||
| Single by Bill Withers | ||||
| from the album Still Bill | ||||
| B-side | "Let Me in Your Life" | |||
| Released | August 1972 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:45 | |||
| Label | Sussex Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Bill Withers | |||
| Bill Withers singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| "Use Me" on YouTube | ||||
"Use Me" is a song, composed and originally recorded by Bill Withers. It was included on his 1972 album Still Bill and was released as a single. An eight-minute live version opens the 1973 album Live at Carnegie Hall.
The song is noted for its repeated bass figure which is heard alongside a complex rhythm in the percussion.[ citation needed ]
Withers has said the song relates to feedback he received from women that he was "too nice", and his intent to change that:
That's fun stuff. That's just talkin' trash. That’s just a song about being a little playful, a little arrogant and a little cool. Unless you were one of those people that were born popular, I was a chronic stutterer until I was twenty-eight. I avoided the phone. So I wasn't this popular guy. I remember being young and I would have girls tell me, "You’re too nice." I didn't understand that.
What kind of twisted world are we in? Women like bad boys, I guess. There is no more confusing form of rejection than for somebody to tell you that you’re not interesting to them because you’re too nice.
So over the course of time, you say okay, you wanna play, okay, let's play? Use Me taps into that. I tried to be nice, now let's get nasty. That song came quick. I was working in McDonnell Douglas out in Long Beach and the noise of the factory, they had some women working there. I crossed that line there thinking, “You all want a nasty boy? Well here I come.” [laughs]. [2]
It was Withers second-biggest hit in the United States, released in September 1972 and later reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. [3] It was kept from No. 1 by both "Ben" by Michael Jackson and "My Ding-a-Ling" by Chuck Berry. [4] "Use Me" also peaked at No. 2 on the soul chart for two weeks. [5] Withers performed it on Soul Train on November 4, 1972. [6] Billboard ranked "Use Me" as the No. 78 song for 1972. [7] The song was certified Gold by the RIAA. [8]
Music critic Robert Christgau called "Use Me" "one of the few knowledgeable songs about sex our supposedly sexy music has ever produced", featuring a "cross-class attraction" in its narrative. [9]
| Chart (1972) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard Easy Listening | 14 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles | 2 |
| U.S. Cash Box Top 100 | 5 |
| Canada RPM Hot Singles | 33 |
| Chart (1972) | Rank |
|---|---|
| US Cash Box [10] | 100 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI) [11] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
A variety of artists have covered the song, including:
William Harrison Withers Jr. was an American singer and songwriter. He is known for having several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977) and "Just the Two of Us" (1980). Withers won three Grammy Awards out of nine total nominations.
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Me and Mrs. Jones is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in January 1973 by Columbia Records. While it does cover several big chart hits of the day like his last album, Song Sung Blue, did, it also includes songs that didn't make the US Top 40 or had never charted.
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Live at Carnegie Hall is a live album by American soul singer-songwriter and producer Bill Withers. The album was recorded on October 6, 1972, at Carnegie Hall in New York City and released on April 21, 1973, by Sussex Records as a double LP. On October 28, 1997, it was reissued as a single CD by Columbia/Legacy.
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The discography of American singer-songwriter and musician Bill Withers (1938–2020). It consists of eight studio albums, one live album, 10 compilation albums and 34 singles.
