 The success of both this single and the follow-up single, "Whatta Man" propelled "Very Necessary" to sell over five million copies in the US, becoming the group's best-selling album.This song uses a sample of the a cover version of Ike Turner's "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)" from The Sweet Inspirations.And the line "the voodoo that you do so well" was quoted from Cole Porter's 1929 song "You Do Something to Me".