"Never Be Your Woman" is a song by British rapper Wiley featuring British singer and songwriter Emeli Sandé and produced by Naughty Boy. It was released on 28 February 2010 by Relentless Records (Virgin Records) and samples White Town's 1997 number-one single "Your Woman", which in turn features a trumpetline taken from the 1932 recording "My Woman" by Lew Stone & his Monseigneur Band.[1] "Never Be Your Woman" is included as a bonus track on Naughty Boy's debut album, Hotel Cabana (2013).
Critical reception
Fraser McAlpine of BBC Chart Blog gave the song a positive review stating:
In these globally conscious times – where wasting precious resources on trivial things would be a shooting offense, if we could only spare the bullets – everyone loves a good recycler. Music is no different, in this regard. You can recycle old sounds, or old guitars, old ideas, old clothes or old poses. You can re-use the swagger of an olden-days singer or the hairstyle of some rock grandad or other. It's all there for the taking.
The trick is to find something which hasn't been recycled so often it loses its original shape and starts to get a bit baggy at the seams, so you end up having to basically remake the whole thing from scratch (Glee people, I am looking at you).
Credit to wiley old Mr Wiley then, for finding a sample of a late '90s hit which itself contains a sample of an old song from the past. This is therefore double recycling. He can basically drive a Hummer into a panda now, and he'll still be ahead of most of us. .[2]
Commercial performance
According to midweek figures,[3] "Never Be Your Woman" was scheduled to debut on the UK Singles Chart at number 5, selling just under 20,000. It was revealed on 7 March 2010 that "Never Be Your Woman" entered the UK Singles Chart at its current peak position of number 8, marking Wiley's second UK top 10 hit, after "Wearing My Rolex", which peaked at number 2 back in 2008. As of 4 January 2011, "Never Be Your Woman" has sold 120,000 units in the UK.
