The Alternative Number Ones: Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I’m reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it’s for members only. Thank you to everyone who’s helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

Eyyyye whuunt yeeew ta knyeeew that nobody saw this coming. It was one thing to hear "You Oughta Know" on the radio with no context. That made sense. It's a rock song from a lady who is mad at a guy who apparently dumped her and then moved on to somebody else. That's normal. We'd heard that before, and we've heard it more since. "You Oughta Know" belonged to an established category, and it was a really, really good example of its form. The singer had this uncontrolled yodel-howl thing, a bit like Sinéad O'Connor at her most enraged. Her delivery was full of weird little intonations, and all of them were memorable. She sang with real fire, as if she was going through all those emotions right there, in front of you. The chorus was huge. The backing track was funky but not distractingly so. She sang about sex a couple of times, and the first time you listened, you had to pause for a second and wonder if you just heard what you thought you heard. On the radio, those bits was usually bleeped out, but you still knew what she was saying.

The radio is where most people heard "You Oughta Know" for the first time. Not me, though. I came across the song on one of the free CDs that came with issues of CMJ magazine. I just Googled to make sure I didn't make up this memory, but no, it's true. "You Oughta Know" was track 10 of 21 on the disc that came with the July 1995 issue. It's on there with songs from Soul Asylum and Tripping Daisy and Supergrass and the Circle Jerks and Green Apple Quick Step, as well as another song that'll appear in this column soon. But hearing "You Oughta Know" like that wasn't too different from encountering it on the radio. In both cases, Alanis Morissette was merely a name and a song. The song was good. Maybe it was even great. The context stuff all came later, as did the realization that the song was really great.