The 25 Best Usher Songs

The best Usher songs, including "Confessions" deep cuts.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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The music of Usher is all about you—er, U. For 20 years, Usher Raymond has brought out the best of pop music in R&B, creating Billboard single after Billboard single. We can guarantee you listened to his tracks at your early school dances, then college make-out sessions, and, later still, breakups and make-ups and everything in between. Usher is a master in the art of love and girls. It's worth mentioning that he's been making mixing music since he was rocking baby fat and ribbed turtlenecks on the cover of his debut album as a 16-year-old—he's grown up while we've grown up with him. 

At 36, Usher can count seven albums among his many accomplishments, which means you have a large body of work to consider when selecting his best songs. Given the way hip-hop and pop have changed over the last two decades, you have a variety of styles to select from, too. There's Baby Usher. Jermaine Dupri Usher. Neptunes Usher. Chilli's Usher. Crunk Usher. Justin Bieber Crafter Usher. EDM Usher.

It wasn't easy—it's never easy—but the Complex music team has poured over the artist's albums and have come up with the 25 best Usher Songs List in honor of his birthday. These are our confessions: We've got it bad, but hopefully not wrong. Can you deny you still don't scream out when Yeah comes on in the club? Didn't think so.  This DJ Got Us Fallin' in love for sure.

25. "OMG" f/ will.i.am (2010) 

24. "Think of You" (1994)

23. "Good Kisser" (2014)

22. "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)" f/ Plies (2009)

21. "Throwback" (2004) 

20. "Lovers and Friends" f/ Ludacris and Lil Jon (2004)

19. "Bad Girl" (2004)

18. "Slow Jam" f/ Monica (1997)

17. "Confessions Pt. 1" (2004)

16. "Can U Help Me" (2001)

15. "Caught Up" (2004)

14. "I Need a Girl (Part 1)" f/ P. Diddy and Loon (2002)

13. "My Boo" f/ Alicia Keys (2004)

12. "There Goes My Baby" (2010)

11. "Yeah!" f/ Ludacris and Lil Jon (2004)

17. "My Way" (1997)

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Album: My Way 

Producer: Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal

What's up, young Alex DeLarge? Shedding his baby Usher image in '97 meant dressing up like a candy-colored Clockwork Orange droog for the "My Way" video. Of course, the video opens with Usher bouncing around in one of those inflatable play palaces, so the transition was maybe halfhearted. There's no mistaking the reason for the maturation, though: Jermaine Dupri, who prowls on the outskirts of the song (and video), barking encouragement to our (young) man. Dupri activated Usher's confidence in the most brash of teenage ways. "You can't satisfy her needs," Usher sings, "She keeps runnin' back to see me do it my way." And poof: entire generations replace the Sinatra standard with this. —Ross Scarano

16. "Love in This Club" f/ Young Jeezy (2008)

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Album: Here I Stand

Producer: Polow da Don

You meet someone at a club on a Saturday night. Things seem to be progressing nicely, but figuring out the logistics of whose apartment to go to is always such a hassle. “What would Usher do?” you ask. Answer: Why, have sex on the dance floor, of course. Usher may be a romantic, but above all, the man is a pragmatist. “Let’s both get undressed right here,” he suggests amid the palpitations of a synth-driven beat sent from outer space. “I don’t care who’s watching.” Well, wave to the Snowman, kids, because he’s definitely checking you out from the corner and ready to suggest some locations for your club tryst: “On the couch, on the table, on the bar, or on the floor.” Whether you choose to whisper into your partner’s ear that you “want to make love in this club” or offer, like Jeezy, to “bag [her] like some groceries,” the directness will surely be appreciated, because really, who has time to play games anymore? —Christine Werthman

 

 

15. "U Got It Bad" (2001)

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Album: 8701

Producer: Bryan-Michael Cox and Jermaine Dupri

Usher had another hit on his hands with his 2001 single “U Got It Bad,” which spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The record was tailor-made for success, too, as the R&B phenom linked up with (yet again) Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox, who crafted a slow-burning ballad meant to top anything Usher had released prior. This was a notion Dupri was mindful of when creating the record. “We went into [8701] saying, we got to make another 'Nice & Slow,’” JD told Complex in 2013. “What I did with 'U Got It Bad' was take it to the next level, make another version of that.”

Whereas “Nice & Slow” delivered a slow jam vibe ripe for a late night rendezvous, “U Got It Bad” was the antithesis of an erotic fantasy, with Usher exploring a relationship he can’t sensibly appreciate. A line like “If you miss a day without your friend/Your whole life's off track” may seem innocent on the surface level, but it speaks to his unhealthy obsession over a lost flame. Which, if you’ve ever been in that situation personally, please take 10 steps back from the ledge.

The video for “U Got It Bad” perfectly captured this sentiment, with Usher losing sleep over the break up with his love interest—Chilli of TLC—to the point that he fantasizes about confronting her with his feelings. It’s a heart-wrenching moment that looks and feels so real. Because it is.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this watershed choreo GIF from the video. No one was fucking with Usher’s dance moves. No one. —Edwin Ortiz

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13. "Nice & Slow" (1997)

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Album: My Way

Producer: Jermaine Dupri

​In three years, Usher Raymond went from merely thinking of you to actively promising to freak you right x4. That’s the difference between 16 and 19 (and maybe the difference between no Jermaine Dupri and hell yes Jermaine Dupri). Compared to his self-titled debut, My Way, his second album, is full of carnal possibility, and “Nice and Slow” is the play-by-play of one hopeful encounter. We open on Usher driving to his beloved’s house: “I’ll be there in about, uh, gimme 10 minutes.” This is still a teenage affair. You can tell from the way he says he knows a quiet place to take her (it’s obviously not his house) and from his desire to just pull over and get this thing started right now. This thing. He can’t even call it what it is. But what is it when you’re 19? It’s still magic, just like this song. —Ross Scarano

 

12. "U Remind Me" (2001)

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Album: 8701

Producer: Edmund "Butter" Clement, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis

Nearly four years passed between the release of Usher’s second and third albums, My Way and 8701, respectively. In that time span, Usher went from being a teenager to an early 20-something, and his vocal growth was evident from the album’s first single, “U Remind Me.” The song walks to a simple rhythm with a bounce in its step, the playfulness of My Way still intact. Usher is more cocksure than before as he explains to a girl that he can’t date her because she reminds him of his ex, and though the chorus has a nice swing to it, the real magic is in the bridge. Male voices rise up to handle the foundation of the melody, and Usher catapults into “I know-oh-oh-oh-oh it’s so unfair,” somersaulting through a series of vocal acrobatics that culminates with the breakdown on “You remind me.” The written version of that quotation looks so pathetic compared to the ornamental rendition that Usher sings, but suffice it to say that he spends eight seconds working through the four syllables in those three little words. —Christine Werthman

 

 

11. "U Don't Have to Call" (2001)

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Album: 8701

Producer: The Neptunes

Is there a more accurate depiction of how quickly men go from grieving over an ex to hitting the club with their boys than "U Don't Have to Call"? Usher just spent the majority of the "U Got It Bad" video in bed reminiscing over his failed relationship with Chilli, but the minute Diddy calls he's in the club looking for his next bae. Flawlessly written by Pharrell Williams and produced by the Neptunes, and with backup vocals from Kelis, "U Don't Have to Call" is the sweetest song about losing every fuck you give once you walk into the club. The irony of it being released as part of a double A-side with his Diddy collab, "I Need a Girl (Part One)," is essentially what Usher brings to the table: the saddest love songs and the most exuberant bangers to get your mind off a breakup for the night.

Tracks from Usher's 8701 and Justin Timberlake's Justified were reportedly intended for a certain Michael Jackson project with the Neptunes, and you can surely imagine MJ on the track. But no one can do it quite like Usher. —Lauren Nostro

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9. "Confessions Pt. II" (2004)

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Album: Confessions

Producer: Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox

During Usher's maturation from pretty young boy to a bona fide global superstar, there was a point where he had to man up. Part of manning up is confessing to one's past transgressions. Now, while Usher's name hadn't been all over the National Enquirer or anything like that, he's been an R&B star since the mid-'90s. Dude had to have some skeletons, ghosts, and all kinds of things in his closet.

Or so we thought.

The story that Usher and Jermaine Dupri tell about "Confessions Pt. II" is that parts of the narrative came from Jermaine's life, some of the secrets were Usher's, and other parts (like the whole "getting my sidechick pregnant" bit) were Usher "playing a character." It's maybe hard to believe, especially when Usher promised that his Confessions album would be nothing but "real talk," and you gotta figure that there are a number of salons and barber shops in the hood still contemplating the validity of Usher's claims that he was "just playing" with certain parts of the song.

Or maybe he was trying to write the anthem for guys trying to win their girls back after failing paternity tests on Maury.

Whatever the case may be, Usher owned the summer of 2004, and while the mainstream was wowed by "Yeah!," it was "Confessions Pt. II" that had the hood open. It might've been the infections mid-tempo groove that Dupri cooked up. It might've been the drama-soaked hook, which is as sticky a situation as any man could get themselves into. Or it might've been that question of, "Oh wait, Usher got a baby by some other girl? Why wasn't he rocking with Chilli?" Regardless, Usher took his music to another level on "Confessions Pt. II," and officially entered a new era in his career. —khal

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7. "You Make Me Wanna..." (1997)

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Album: My Way

Producer: Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal

Usher should never forgive the people who didn’t listen to his criminally under-appreciated debut album. But in hindsight, the failure of that project rightly forced the label to step away from Puff Daddy and turn to Jermaine Dupri. Puffy was skilled at putting together a team that could cultivate a certain sound, but that sound often said more about the team than the artist singing. By contrast, Dupri helped Usher create his own thing with “You Make Me Wanna...” It dealt with relationships, but in a way that didn’t sound “too adult” like previous songs. Likewise, the upbeat track better suited Usher’s then-youthful vocals. Usher had plenty of opportunities to sing about love and sex, but he needed to do so in a more age-appropriate way. Dupri provided that with “You Make Me Wanna...,” and it’s a great thing that he did. If Usher had stuck with Diddy, he might have turned into Sammie. —Michael Arceneaux

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5. "Burn" (2004)

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Album: Confessions

Producer: Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox

How's that phrase go? If you love something, let it burn; if it comes back, it’s best you go your separate ways; but if it never returns, and you find yourself calling your new girl by your old girl’s name, maybe you made a terrible mistake? And so it is on Confessions’ agonizing, indecisive breakup ballad, “Burn.” The song came out right as Usher's relationship with Chilli from TLC was coming to an end, which made the lyrics seem like a window into the demise of the R&B power couple. The truth was that the words originated with producers Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox, as they recounted a situation separate from Usher

No matter though, because Usher Raymond shoulders the burden of the message, soft-talking his way into a difficult conversation: “What I’m trying to say is that, I love you, I just….” At the start, he confidently administers tough love as he torches the relationship, but by the end, he’s the one burning and breaking down, frantically ad-libbing behind the voice-of-reason chorus. It’s the uncertain sound of a head battling a heart, of doing what you want to do versus doing what you should. Usher had sung about heartbreak on previous songs, but he'd never unraveled quite like this before. —Christine Werthman

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3. "Climax" (2012)

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Album: Looking 4 Myself

Producer: Diplo and Natural

By 2010, it seemed that Usher felt like he had done as much as he could with R&B. It was a fair assumption. Very few artists had a run like his, one which culminated with the 2004 release of Confessions. On his sixth album, he tapped hitmakers from different scenes to craft songs that would work well overseas. The first of these came courtesy of will.i.am, who produced "OMG," which topped the charts in over 10 countries. Usher kept going, hopping on songs with David Guetta and Romeo Santos. It was unclear how long this non-R&B kick would last. Then came "Climax."

Some folks don't consider "Climax" an R&B song. They are wrong. In an interview with Complex, Elijah Blake, the song's writer, spoke on trying to balance Usher's pop-leanings with a more traditional R&B offering:


"So when we got to work with Usher, he was saying ‘I've gotten so much success from the pop world recently and I can’t just leave them hanging, but my real fan base is from the urban world and from what I've been able to accomplish in R&B. On this album I want to be able to please everybody.’ He was so successful with [songs like ‘O.M.G.’] and the R&B people were like, What about us? So I had like the hardest task—how do I please both of those audiences? Honestly when he was telling me that I was like, Hell if I know, cause that sounded difficult as hell."

The solution was to blend Diplo's electronic, sci-fi soul with one of the best vocal performances of Usher's career. The song meditates on a relationship that has run its course and the realization that it would be better if the two "love each other separately." The song is angelic as they come, with the chords rising with Usher's voice only to crash back to earth. The beat soars and then it's pulled out from underneath him, without the satisfaction of a proper resolution (just like there's no satisfying resolution for the lovers). There's no big drop. There's no chance for a climax.

Usher's never needed a hit as badly as he did when he released "Climax." As he admitted to Elijah, he needed to give his longtime fans something as he searched for new listeners. Compromises rarely work in that regard, but he made it work. He found a way to please both audiences. Let's see if he can continue to do so. —Damien Scott

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