People read a lot of things into Bill Withers' gold single "Use Me." Was it based on the singer/songwriter's failed marriage to actress Denise Nicholas (who starred in the ABC-TV series Room 222 and the horror classic Blacula)? It seemed the antithesis of "Lean on Me" in both tone and lyric. At the time the couple married, some thought that Withers and Nicholas were from two different worlds; he was a country boy from West Virginia and she had a West Coast chic and sophistication aura. A similar incongruity seemed to surround the marriage of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. "Use Me" represents a departure for Withers away from the friendly "down home"-ness of "Lean on Me" and "Grandma's Hands." It's biting in many ways. The track is propelled by a funky, searing clavinet riff that mirrors some of the lyrics' more unsettling imagery. The singer/songwriter drawls: "You get me in the middle of a bunch of high class people/then you act real rude to me." It seems all is made well in the bedroom as Withers' phrasing takes on a more lascivious tone that's filled with sexual innuendo. Whatever the case, "Use Me" earned him his third million-selling single, hanging at number two for two weeks on both the R&B and pop charts in fall 1972.
(by Ed Hogan, allmusic.com)