You Never Know

Album: Wilco (The Album) (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • This was released as the first single from American alternative rock band Wilco's seventh studio album, Wilco (The Album).
  • A number of critics have compared the sound of this pop/rock number to George Harrison's '70s material. Others have pointed out its similarity to the song structure of Harrison's former Travelling Wilbury colleague Tom Petty's 1987 single "Jammin' Me."
  • Wilco played this on the Tonight Show with Conan O Brien on 24th June 2009.
  • This was Wilco's first #1 on the Billboard Triple A radio chart, twelve years after the band's Triple A debut, "Outtasite (Outta Mind)," peaked at #16. Wilco thus set the record for the longest wait between an act's first hit and first #1 on that particular tally. The record was previously held by Alanis Morissette, who waited eight years between 1996's "Ironic"and her first #1, 2004's "Everything." In a twist that the "Ironic" songwriter may or may not appreciate, the song that launched Morissette's career, (which didn't chart on Triple A) was the similarly titled, "You Oughta Know."

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