Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Alanis Morissette, “You Oughta Know”

20 years ago this week, Alanis Morissette took the first single from her Jagged Little Pill album to the top of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, thereby empowering a generation of young women while also ensuring that no one would ever be able to look at Uncle Joey on Full House the same way again.

Arguably one of the angriest and most bitter songs to end up as a chart-topper “You Oughta Know” found Alanis telling the tale of an excruciating break-up between her and an unidentified former boyfriend. Indeed, to this day, she has never actually confirmed the identity of the gentleman she’s railing against in the song. Dave Coulier, on the other hand, had no problem admitting that he was the guy she was singing about...until 2014, when he said he wasn’t. So, basically, no one really knows who “You Ought Know” is about, but Coulier pretty much sealed his own fate as far as people still believing he’s the S.O.B. in question.

As for the song itself, “You Oughta Know” was the tipping point for Alanis, turning her from some sassy singer-songwriter on Madonna’s label (Maverick) into a full-fledged superstar, and as a result of securing that level of fame, her subsequent singles from the album proved to be smashes as well. Indeed, one might even argue that Jagged Little Pill was dangerously successful, as it put Alanis in a position where she’s never been able to match its commercial fortunes, but when you’ve sold that many copies of an album, it’s kind of hard to complain, really.