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Used to Be My Girl

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Released
  
2006

Genre
  
R&B

Label
  
Warner Bros Records

Recorded
  
2006

Length
  
4:12

Format
  
Digital download, CD single

"Used to Be My Girl" is a single by Brian McKnight, released in 2006 from Ten. It was written and produced by Tim & Bob. The song peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

The album serves the first official single on October 17, 2006.

The song, as McKnight states in the beginning, "is not another love song". Instead, the song's lyrics expresses dismay at what he perceives to be another man's excessive pride in his relationship with an attractive girlfriend; with whom the songwriter used to have a relationship. McKnight's lyrics seemingly taunt the new love interest, going so far as to offer advice on dealing with the past relationship:

See, I know what you're thinkin'
You're feelin' like a lucky guy
I was the same way
'cause she was hard to come by
I was on her so hard
That I almost lost my hustle
So go 'head, playboy, do your thing
Don't be mad if she calls my name

The antagonist cautions the woman's new boyfriend not to "hate on" him when she intimately mentions his name, and implies that the new relationship is really "just a game", a theory that he argues is proven by her perceived inability to acknowledge his presence as he watches the new couple:

She's still thinkin' 'bout me, And I'll tell you why,
She couldn't even hold her head up when you walked by

The song ends with the singer recounting and implying to the new boyfriend various intimate acts that the woman performed for him when "she was my girl".

References

Used to Be My Girl Wikipedia