Songfacts®:

• Withers wrote this song with Stan McKenney, who also wrote some songs for The Chi-Lites. The song finds the singer angry and accusatory, as he knows his girl has been cheating on him. Withers explained to Mojo in 2003: "Stan McKenney sent those lyrics to me in the mail. I've gotten a gazillion things in the mail and that's the only one I've ever done something with, because I could see it. If I don't see it, it doesn't occur to me, so I don't attempt to say it."
  
  Withers wasn't the only one who could "see it." Many listeners could relate to the song, and it has endured through many cover versions. A 1974 recording by the group Creative Source, who like Withers were signed to Sussex Records, went to #69 on the US pop charts and #21 R&B. In versions by The Three Degrees, Jean Knight and Gladys Knight & the Pips, the gender is changed, making the song "Who Is She (And What Is She To You)." Meshell Ndegeocello, who is bisexual, kept the original lyrics when she covered the song in 1996, and in 2009, Tower of Power recorded it for their album The Great American Soulbook. (interview with Bill Withers)
• Withers' original version was used in the 1997 Quentin Tarantino movie Jackie Brown.