"Use Your Head" is a soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

ful pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 song written by Barrett Strong

Barrett Strong

Barrett Strong is an American singer and songwriter. Strong was the first artist to record a hit for Motown, although he is best remembered for his work as a songwriter, particularly in association with producer Norman Whitfield.-His career:Strong was among the first artists signed to Berry...

, Wade Flemons and The Dells

The Dells

The Dells are an R&B and crossover musical group. Their successful recordings spanned more than four decades. Formed in 1952 after attending high school together, the Dells' repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul, disco and contemporary rhythm and blues...

' Chuck Barksdale and released as a single by former Motown

Motown Records

Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

 singer Mary Wells

Mary Wells

Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...

 on the 20th Century Fox label.

Song information

The single showcases the narrator telling her lover to think before he made some costly decisions based on advice given to him by one of his best friends warning her lover to "use his head" before he ends up "losing the best love he ever had".

Release and reaction

The song was one of the few successful post-Motown singles Wells recorded. The song registered at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 and number 13 on the R&B singles chart

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

.

Personnel

• Lead vocal by Mary Wells
  Mary Wells
  Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...
  
  
• Background vocals by assorted singers
• Instrumentation by assorted musicians