You Don't Know How It Feels

"You Don't Know How It Feels"
Single by Tom Petty
from the album Wildflowers
B-side"Girl on LSD"
ReleasedNovember 7, 1994 (1994-11-07)[1]
Genre
Length4:49
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)Tom Petty
Producer(s)
Tom Petty singles chronology
"American Girl (re-release)"
(1994) 		"You Don't Know How It Feels"
(1994) 		"You Wreck Me"
(1995)
Tom Petty singles chronology
"For Real"
(2019) 		"You Don't Know How It Feels (Home Recording)"
(2020) 		"Wildflowers"
(2020)

"You Don't Know How It Feels" is a song and the lead single from American musician Tom Petty's 1994 album, Wildflowers. The track features candid lyrics describing the songwriter's desire for personal and professional autonomy.[6] The single reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, No. 3 on the Canadian RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart, and No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Petty's last top-40 hit in the US. An alternate version was posthumously released on June 26, 2020.[7] This version peaked at No. 54 on the iTunes chart.[8]

MTV, VH1, and many radio stations aired a censored version of "You Don't Know How It Feels," taking the word "roll" out of "let's roll another joint", as well as a version that played the word "joint" backwards. A version replacing the word "roll" with "hit" was also made.[9] The music video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1995. The actress in the video is Raven Snow; she also appeared in several episodes of Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries and the film Delta of Venus as lounge singer Leila.

  1. ^ "Single Releases". Music Week. November 5, 1994. p. 23.
  2. ^ "You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  3. ^ Greenwald, Matthew. "You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers | Song Info". AllMusic. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  4. ^ Greenwald, Matthew. "You Wreck Me - Tom Petty, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers | Song Info". AllMusic. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  5. ^ Molanphy, Chris (October 30, 2017). "Le Petty Prince Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  6. ^ Greenwald, Matthew. You Don't Know How It Feels. AllMusic. Retrieved on April 9, 2009.
  7. ^ Rowley, Glenn (June 29, 2020). "Hear a Newly Unearthed Home Recording of Tom Petty's 'You Don't Know How It Feels'". Billboard. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  8. ^ "'You Don't Know How It Feels (Home Recording)' by Tom Petty (American Songs iTunes Chart)". iTunesCharts.net. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  9. ^ "MTV.com |Video: "You Don't Know How It Feels"". MTV. Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2009.