"Give Me Something" was written by Yoko Ono and produced by Ono and Jack Douglas. Ono stated in an interview that "Give Me Something" was written as a "feeling that I had about society. [...] We’re all getting very cold now as a society."[2] Ono further explained the song's theme of coldness to Spinner: "I remember I was envisioning a gray, cold city with people walking with hands in their pockets and putting the collars of their coats up."[3]
Critical reception
Larry Fitzmaurice from Pitchfork Media described the original version as a "spiky new-wave tune featuring a particularly angry vocal performance," but commented that the Junior Boys "smooth out some of the tune's rougher edges, morphing Ono's cries into elastic bursts and turning the track into a Danceteria-worthy disco jam."[4]
Chart performance
The song became Yoko Ono's fourth consecutive number-one hit on the Billboard Hot Dance Club chart.[2]