“You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette

"You Oughta Know" is the song that blew the doors off for Canadian singer Alanis Morissette: the lead single from Jagged Little Pill, her third album, released by Maverick in 1995, and the second track on the record. She already had two albums behind her when she met producer Glen Ballard in Los Angeles, and this was one of the songs the two of them wrote together.

It's one unnamed person getting both barrels. Morissette's voice goes from a coiled mutter to a full-on scorched-earth yowl, and the backing band is stacked: Flea on bass, Dave Navarro on guitar, Matt Laug on drums and Benmont Tench on organ, all of them digging in hard. Ballard produced and recorded it, with Jimmy Boyelle mixing and Chris Fogel co-mixing. Who the song is aimed at became a parlor game, and Morissette has never told and never said she will.

Critics praised the words, the music and the singing. Three countries put it in their top ten and six more in their top 40, and her run atop Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart stood as the longest by a woman until 2013. It won Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance plus the Juno for Single of the Year, and Nick Egan directed the video. It's the song that carried her into the mainstream.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.