You Oughta Know
by Alanis Morissette
- 103
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 66
- Danceability
- 21
- Acousticness
Glen Ballard met Alanis Morissette on March 8, 1994, after his publishing company matched them up. Within half an hour they were trying out sounds in his home studio in the San Fernando Valley. Ballard said she was 19, intelligent, and clear that she would only do what was authentic.
They co-wrote "You Oughta Know," which Morissette said came from her subconscious. She sang in the booth with the ink barely dry and remembered little the next day. The demo was recorded on November 28, 1994. Matt Laug played drums, Lance Morrison bass, and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers added Hammond organ on December 5. In early 1995, producer Jimmy Boyle brought in Dave Navarro on guitar and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass. Navarro said they had only the vocal to work from. They jammed until both were happy.
Maverick released it in July 1995 as the lead single from Jagged Little Pill, after KROQ-FM in Los Angeles began playing it. It won the Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Morissette has never said whom it is about.
You Oughta Know runs at 103 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.33 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 583 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.