You Learn

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"You Learn"

Single by Alanis Morissette
from the album Jagged Little Pill
Released	1995
Format	CD single
Recorded	1995
Genre	Rock
Length	4:00
Label	Maverick
Writer(s)	Alanis Morissette, Glen Ballard
Producer(s)	Glen Ballard
Alanis Morissette singles chronology
Hand in My Pocket	You Learn	Ironic

"You Learn" is a rock song by Alanis Morissette and was the seventh track (and the fourth of six singles) from her Jagged Little Pill CD. A music video, featuring a cart-wheeling, back-flipping, dread-locked Morissette, was created. The song would become one of Morissette's most enduring songs, appearing again on both of her acoustic CDs, as well as in nearly all of her concerts. A live, acoustic version from her Alanis Unplugged album was also released as a single in some countries. Over time, the arrangement of the song has changed repeatedly (particularly parts of the chorus melody), but the lyrics, of course, have remained the same. Morissette has most recently performed it in her Diamond Wink tour for her Jagged Little Pill Acoustic album.

"You Learn" is also noteworthy for being the source of the title of Morissette's most popular CD. It refers not to drug use but rather to the lessons of life being hard to accept ("Swallow it down, what a jagged little pill/ It feels so good swimming in your stomach"). The phrase is often mistaken for the title of the song.

In the song, the first glimpse of Morissette's insightful, new-age guru appears for the first time, speaks of the importance of poor decision making in life, explaining that every decision that people make will teach a valuable lesson.

It should be noted that although the song's peak position of #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart may seem low given the fact that the track was #1 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for five weeks, "You Learn" was not released as a retail single until after the song's airplay had peaked. The single peaked at #30 on the Single Sales chart, likely because of audience "burnout" on the track on by that time and also because listeners who liked the song probably already owned it on Morissette's album. Two other examples of tracks that reached surprisingly low peaks on the Hot 100 despite #1 Airplay rankings, because of weak single sales due to being released commercially after their airplay peaks, include "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin and "I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts.

[edit] Chart Performances

Top 40 Mainstream: #1
Top 40 Adult Recurrents: #1
Adult Top 40: #3
Hot 100: #6
Hot 100 Airplay: #1 (5 weeks) Hot 100 Singles Sales: #30 Modern Rock Tracks: #7
Adult Contemporary: #23
Rhymthmic Top 40: #32
Mainstream Rock Tracks: #40
Canadian Singles Chart: #1