Songfacts®:

• In this song, Usher finds himself falling for a girl who to this point has been just a friend. He already has a girlfriend, but he's thinking about swapping her out for this other girl, who seems to really get him.
  
  The song is based on a true story. "I was with one girl, but I had flown to Los Angeles and I fell in love with this other girl," he told Entertainment Weekly. "And what was so odd about it is she started out as a friend, and was encouraging me to keep my relationship afloat. And then I'm like, 'Well s--t, why don't I be with you?"
• Usher wrote this song with Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal, Jr. Dupri is a prolific writer and producer who has a company called So So Def Recordings, and Seal was one of his songwriting partners. Along with Mariah Carey, they also wrote the hit "Always Be My Baby."
• "You Make Me Wanna" was Usher's breakout hit, released when he was just 18. He was signed to the red-hot Atlanta label LaFace Records, which also had TLC and Toni Braxton on the roster. They released his first single, "Call Me A Mack," in 1993 when Usher was 14. His self-titled debut album, overseen by Puff Daddy, appeared the next year and produced two modest hits: "Can U Get Wit It" and "Think Of You." For his next album, My Way, LaFace teamed him with Jermaine Dupri, an up-and-comer who produced Xscape and Kris Kross. They clicked, and hit the big-time with My Way. "You Make Me Wanna" was a #1 R&B hit and climbed to #2 on the Hot 100. The next single, "Nice & Slow," went to #1 on the Hot 100, followed by "My Way," which hit #2. It made a Usher a star and put Dupri in the ranks of elite producers. Usher's next album, 8701, included two more chart-toppers: "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad."
• Usher didn't consider himself a songwriter at the time, but Jermaine Dupri did, and helped coax the story of this song out of him. "I thought about this moment Usher had on New Year's Eve with his ex-girlfriend, and I just started singing, 'You make me want to leave the one I'm with, start a new relationship with you...'" Dupri said in a My Way documentary. "I started letting him realize that all I'm doing is listening to you and I'm incorporating it into the song. Once that hit him it became easier for him to start writing songs."
• Usher says in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, "'You Make Me Wanna' was about a man having problems with his girlfriend and turning to another female for comfort. Before long he found he was falling in love with the other girl. It was one of the last songs that we cut. As soon as we heard it, we knew that it should be the first one to release from the album."
• The music video was directed by Bille Woodruff, who went on to direct the 2003 movie Honey, starring Jessica Alba. There's no girl in the video, just Usher and some backup dancers (and a goldfish). Instead of fleshing out the story, Woodruff kept the camera fixed on Usher, who had no trouble carrying it. For many viewers, it was their first look at Usher and his sweet dance moves.
• This song had the longest run in the history of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, eventually winding up with 71 weeks on the chart. It stayed at #2 on the Hot 100 for seven weeks, unable to dislodge Elton John's "Candle In The Wind," which spent 14 weeks on top. "You Make Me Wanna" did hit the top spot in the UK, giving Usher his first #1 on that tally.
• "You Make Me Wanna's" record run in the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list was overtaken by Mary J. Blige's "Be Without You" in 2007. In total Blige's recording was on the chart for 75 weeks.