The song champions loyalty and monogamy, as the singer implores the listener to find that one true love that will nurture them and get them through the tough times.

[7] When Grace Slick departed to join Jefferson Airplane, she took this song with her, bringing it to the Surrealistic Pillow sessions,[5] along with her own composition "White Rabbit".

Slick's original performance of the song with the Great Society is more subdued, with the Jefferson Airplane version sounding far more accusatory and menacing on lines such as "Your mind is so full of bread" and "Your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest.

"[7] The lyrics are in the second person, with each two-line verse setting a scene of alienation and despair, and the chorus repeating the title of the song, with slight variations such as: "... / Don't you need somebody to love?

"[10] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it Jefferson Airplane's best song because "it drives harder than almost anything else they ever recorded," "Slick checks in with her all-time greatest vocal" and "the hook is bigger and brighter than most of the band's psychedelic folk-outs.

[23] In December 2001, Mark J. Klak and Mirko Jacob of Boogie Pimps decided to cover the song after watching the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, in which "Somebody to Love" is featured.

Jefferson Aiplane's studio release was used at the beginning of the Coen brothers' A Serious Man, just after the opening short story about the dybbuk and the title graphic.

Burwell responded by adding a dark, brooding introduction to Somebody To Love using the same model electric guitar and bass used in the original studio recording, and played through similar amps by selected musicians.