I Should Have Known It

Album: Mojo (2010)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is a single taken from Mojo, the twelfth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was Petty's first record with the Heartbreakers in eight years. Petty's long-time lead guitarist Mike Campbell told Jam! Music that the blues-based album was inspired by the sound of his recently acquired sunburst '59 Les Paul. "I got a new guitar which is actually an old guitar," he said. "It's the classic Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Eric Clapton-era guitar. There were only 500 or 600 of them made that year. There's just something about the harmonic overtones in it when I picked it up and plugged it in, it immediately had that classic British blues sound. It was kind of eerie.

    And Tom had been listening to a lot of blues on our break. So when he heard that guitar, he said, 'Why don't we build an album around that guitar?' It kinda came from that. It was a combination of Tom wanting to explore that aspect of our influence and wanting to feature this guitar."
  • Mojo debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, matching Petty and the Heartbreakers' previous best chart ranking - the band's Damn the Torpedoes spent seven weeks at #2 in 1980.

    Mojo's successful chart placing also meant Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers become the second group, following the Rolling Stones, to notch a Top 10 album on the US album chart in each decade since the 1970s.

Comments: 1

  • Katee from Ashland, Orwas fortunate enough to see Tom Petty on this tour
    at the Gorge, and 'i should have known it' in our
    opinion, brought the house down. unbelievably powerful. my son and i agreed that it was the highlight of the concert. The whole concert was fabulous. But this particular song just blew our minds. I had heard the song before going to the concert, and was surprised to find that it stole the big show..! !Give it a listen. These guys are really getting into the blues. In a good way.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Donny Osmond

Donny OsmondSongwriter Interviews

Donny Osmond talks about his biggest hits, his Vegas show, and the fan who taught him to take "Puppy Love" seriously.

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top Proverb

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top ProverbSong Writing

How a country weeper and a blues number made "rolling stone" the most popular phrase in rock.

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.