Wish I Knew You by The Revivalists

Album: Men Amongst Mountains (2015)

Charted: 84

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Songfacts®:

"Wish I Knew You" is the most popular song from The Revivalists, who formed in New Orleans in 2007. Many songs are about wanting to spend the rest of your days with someone, but this one looks backward, with Revivalists frontman David Shaw extending the timeline by wishing he had known this person earlier. For a while he kept mum on who the song is about, but he later revealed the inspiration as his girlfriend Sam, whom he married in 2022, seven years after the song was released in 2015.
This jazzy horn-laced tune was written by lead singer David Shaw on his front porch and released as a single in February 2016. It moved at a very leisurely pace, climbing to #1 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart in May 2017. It also found success on a number of other rock radio formats, as well as on adult contemporary stations, and even cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at #84, the only Revivalists song to make that chart.

It was a big win for the band, who hadn't gotten much attention outside of their home state of Louisiana to this point.
The song blends keyboards, trumpet, saxophone and pedal steel guitar to create a textured sound that held up very well to repeated listening. It took a while for radio stations to discover it, but when they did, they gave it lots of spins. It even set an airplay record when in May 2017 it registered the most plays ever recorded during a week-long period (3,488 across the panel) for any track on Alternative/Modern Rock radio since the inception of Mediabase tracking systems in 1988.
Asked by Billboard why he believes the song has proved so successful, Shaw replied:

"I think it's a tune that's broad enough so that people can attribute their own meaning and I think that's what art is about. I know exactly what the inspiration was and I think that when you have an idea and a piece that that speaks in a broader sense and you can have all of these different avenues, I think that's when something really, really connects. We are all different people; we have come from all different walks of life and have different experiences. But, when you can hone in on this one thing that everyone can have a unique experience and connection to, that's where the fire is."
The song was featured in a 2017 commercial for Blue Moon Belgian White beer.
This featured in the Season 7 finale of Suits. The episode marked Meghan Markle's last appearance in the show, due to her impending marriage to Prince Harry on May 19, 2018.

Comments: 2

B from Austin I think it should be “we can share my MOON’
Jd Vineland Sound from NohoI think one detail that people seem to miss when they talk about the songs crazy run when it was re-released 2 years after the album dropped was that it was remixed to be more poppy rather than indie. The drums in the remix hit wayyyy harder and the guitar is brighter so it gives more of that dance funk sound. I noticed this when I would jam out to the song in my car on the radio then I went and looked it up on iTunes and listened and I was like wait a minute why do I not like this song as much. At first I thought it was due to the compression and high frequency exciters radio uses but then I realized there was a 2017 - single version and I listened to it and I was like damn what a difference! Now when I am pitching my mixing and mastering services to people I use this song as a reference for what a better mix can do to a songs popularity. I'm a little more expensive than most mixers and this song and it's remix makes people understand what a great mix can do for their music!

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