"When You Gonna Learn" is the debut single by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Acid Jazz

Acid jazz

Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...

 band Jamiroquai

Jamiroquai

Jamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...

. In the United Kingdom, the song is renowned for drawing attention to the band. It was originally released in 1992 by Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz is a record label based in east London. It takes its name from acid jazz, a genre of jazz music. Alternative version states that the genre itself was named after the record label...

, and later re-released on Sony Records

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....

 in 1993 as the lead single from the Emergency on Planet Earth

Emergency on Planet Earth

Emergency on Planet Earth is the debut studio album released by British acid jazz band Jamiroquai. Released in 1993, the album features strong elements of the mixture of the R&B, and funk genres, but it is notable for being one of the group's definitive acid-jazz albums...

album. The lyric themes, like many of Jamiroquai's early songs, speak of environmental awareness. While the single commercially flopped, due to the lack of promotion, the song still remains well-known among fan circles, while its respective single, especially the Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz is a record label based in east London. It takes its name from acid jazz, a genre of jazz music. Alternative version states that the genre itself was named after the record label...

 release, is a rare collectible, also valued much among fan circles.

History

The oldest demo tape of the song dates back to 1989. The only known demo version, unlike the album one, has a different chorus, and a largely different feeling to itself. The demo was recorded without Wallis Buchanan, as he probably wasn't a member of the band at that point. The demo version described here can only be found on the long-gone single for the track. It is labeled as the "Original Demo", what has led fans to consider the chance of more demo tapes being in existence, possibly in the possession of the guitarist of The Brand New Heavies who worked with the band at that time. While the most commonly known version of the song lasts for 3:50, and can be found on the CD album, another, longer version exists. It is known as the "J.K. mix" and lasts for 6 minutes and 28 seconds, and even then fading out in the ending. Fans often assume that the song's actual take might've been 10 or more minutes long, and was cut down because of lack of space. When You Gonna Learn was performed a great number of times during the band's tours. The song can be found on a silver bootleg called "Songs For Manitu". During the Emergency on Planet Earth

Emergency on Planet Earth

Emergency on Planet Earth is the debut studio album released by British acid jazz band Jamiroquai. Released in 1993, the album features strong elements of the mixture of the R&B, and funk genres, but it is notable for being one of the group's definitive acid-jazz albums...

, and the The Return of the Space Cowboy

The Return of the Space Cowboy

The Return Of The Space Cowboy is the second album by the band Jamiroquai. Released in 1994, it is usually classified under the acid-jazz and funk genre.-Album information:...

 tours, the song had a very lengthy didgeridoo

Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...

 introduction, as seen above, which almost always overshadowed the rest of the song in length. There are many versions of the song, with the most notable being the 30-minute performance in Amsterdam in 1994, which actually consists of multiple songs seguing seamlessly into one another.

Music video

A music video was shot for "When You Gonna Learn". It was directed by Morgan Lawley and interspersed artistic shots of lead singer Jay Kay, footage of the band playing and graphic stock footage

Stock footage

Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...

 of animals being experimented on and whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 operations. The original version was banned from MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 because of this imagery, and was replaced with a "cleaner" edit. The uncut video can be viewed on YouTube. When Jason talked about the video in an interview he said that his intention was to make an intense 'shock video' in the first place, depicting various experiments done on animals, whaling operations, and the Nazis, all in the most negative light: "I remember I did the video in America, and I remember the video got banned - you know the video got banned. Well, because I just went to Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

 and just took loads of footage of stuff... Stuf I just didn't think was right. So they said to me "We can't play that, it's got the Nazi party in there -- we can't play that".

1992 (Acid Jazz Records)

CD Single

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) – 3:47
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridon't) – 3:55
3. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Extended Mix) – 6:20
4. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Mix) – 5:47
5. "When You Gonna Learn" (Original Demo) – 4:50
6. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Instrumental) – 5:47

12" Vinyl

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Extended Mix) – 6:20
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Instrumental) – 6:20
3. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Mix) – 5:47
4. "When You Gonna Learn" (Original Demo) – 4:50
5. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo Instrumental) – 6:28

7" Vinyl

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) – 3:47
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridon't) – 3:55

1993 (Sony Soho Square)

CD Single

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) – 3:47
2. "Didgin' Out" (Live at the Milky Way, Amsterdam) – 3:27
3. "Too Young to Die" (Live at Leadmill, Sheffield) – 5:25
4. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Mix) – 5:47

Cassette Single

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) – 3:47
2. "Didgin' Out" (Live at the Milky Way, Amsterdam) – 3:27

12" Vinyl

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Extended Mix) – 6:20
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Instrumental) – 6:20
3. "When You Gonna Learn" (Live at Leadmill, Sheffield) – 9:50
4. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Mix) – 5:47
5. "When You Gonna Learn" (Original Demo) – 4:50
6. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo Instrumental) – 6:28

7" Vinyl

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Extended Mix) – 6:20
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Mix) – 5:47

Australian CD Single and US 12" Vinyl

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) – 3:47
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridon't) – 3:55
3. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Extended Mix) – 6:20
4. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Mix) – 5:47
5. "When You Gonna Learn" (Original Demo) – 4:50
6. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo Instrumental) – 6:28

US CD Single

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo Edit) – 2:57
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridon't Edit) – 3:01

Japanese CD Single

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) – 3:47
2. "Too Young To Die" (7" Edit) – 3"22
3. "When You Gonna Learn" (Canté Hondo Mix) – 5:47
4. "Too Young To Die" (12" Version) – 6:04

Spanish CD Single

1. "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) – 3:47
2. "When You Gonna Learn" (JK Extended Mix) – 6:20

Samples

Contrary to the popular opinion, "When You Gonna Learn" is not the first single written and issued by Jason Kay

Jason Kay

Jason "Jay Kay" Luís Cheetham , is a Grammy Award-winning English musician, best known as the lead singer of the band Jamiroquai...

, though it is the first single issued by his band. Jason's first single is a white label acetate called "Natural Energy", which was pressed only in 3 copies. Kiss 100 FM

Kiss 100 London

Kiss is a UK radio station broadcasting on FM and Digital Radio, specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and TalkTalk TV...

 was the first radio station to play the single. The chord progressions of the song bearsstriking resemblance to the chord progressions of a Johnny "Hammond" Smith's song called "Los Conquistadores Chocolates", however, not by accident, because the booklet of the Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz is a record label based in east London. It takes its name from acid jazz, a genre of jazz music. Alternative version states that the genre itself was named after the record label...

 release of the single bears a "special thanks" note to Smith, who gave permission to Jason to use the composition's structure. However, it is unknown whether Hammond received any royalties or not. The chord progressions of the Cantè hondo mix of this song bear even more resemblance to "Los conquistadores Chocolates". The Cantè Hondo mixes also uses the wind sound effect from Hammond's song. The cover used by Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz is a record label based in east London. It takes its name from acid jazz, a genre of jazz music. Alternative version states that the genre itself was named after the record label...

 is completely different from the cover on Sony's release, even though a Spanish promo issued by Sony bears the AJ cover. There have been legal disputes between Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz Records

Acid Jazz is a record label based in east London. It takes its name from acid jazz, a genre of jazz music. Alternative version states that the genre itself was named after the record label...

 and Epic Records

Epic Records

Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...

because Epic re-released the single without Acid Jazz Records' consent.