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

Who Did It First?

Who Did It First?Music Quiz

Do you know who recorded the original versions of these ten hit songs?

George Harrison

George HarrisonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.

Randy Houser

Randy HouserSongwriter Interviews

The "How Country Feels" singer talks Skynyrd and songwriting.

Album Cover Inspirations

Album Cover InspirationsSong Writing

Some album art was at least "inspired" by others. A look at some very similar covers.

Songs Discussed in Movies

Songs Discussed in MoviesSong Writing

Bridesmaids, Reservoir Dogs, Willy Wonka - just a few of the flicks where characters discuss specific songs, sometimes as a prelude to murder.

Michael Schenker

Michael SchenkerSongwriter Interviews

The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.