Who Did It Better

Bill OR Alicia?

Bill Withers 1972

Use Me

Written by Bill Withers

I can't understand it, my friend
But I'm willing to be the one you use

What's this song about ↓

A confession that starts as a request and ends as a surrender. Bill Withers wrote it as a meditation on the way love can make a strong person weak, a man admitting that the woman he loves has complete power over him. Use me... the phrase is an invitation, a submission, a recognition that some forms of love look less like partnership and more like being used. Withers's original is spare and funky, his voice carrying the admission with a kind of reluctant pride. He knows he is being used. He does not care.

That same confession gets a neo-soul update from

Alicia Keys 2001

Variation A — side column

1972

2001

I already know

Play me a sample

Bill Alicia

I need to be convinced

Variation B — left & right edges

1972

I already know

Play me a sample

Bill Alicia

I need to be convinced

2001

Variation C — filled color-coded buttons

1972

2001

I already know

Play me a sample

Bill Alicia

I need to be convinced

Image Credits

1,414 artist portraits across 5 genres (Rock, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Folk). 1,363 sourced from Wikipedia (Creative Commons / Public Domain), 50 from Deezer (promotional artwork).

Full attribution breakdown →

Who Did It Better

Bill OR Alicia?

Bill Withers 1972

Alicia Keys 2001

Use Me

Written by Bill Withers

I can't understand it, my friend
But I'm willing to be the one you use

What's this song about ↓

That same confession gets a neo-soul update from

Variation A — side column

1972

2001

I already know

Play me a sample

Bill Alicia

I need to be convinced

Variation B — left & right edges

1972

I already know

Play me a sample

Bill Alicia

I need to be convinced

2001

Variation C — filled color-coded buttons

1972

2001

I already know

Play me a sample

Bill Alicia

I need to be convinced