I Know It

Single

Released on the Madonna album in July 1983, I Know It is one of the debut record’s lighter but revealing album tracks. Written by Madonna, produced by Reggie Lucas and mixed by Jim Dougherty, the song sits within the album’s early dance-pop framework while drawing on R&B, soul and Motown influences.

Track: I Know It
Album: Madonna, released July 1983
Written by: Madonna
Produced by: Reggie Lucas
Mixed by: Jim Dougherty

The track features musicians including Dean Gant, Fred Zarr, Ed Walsh, Reggie Lucas, Ira Siegel, Leslie Ming and Bobby Malach, with Madonna also providing backing vocals. Its arrangement combines synthesizers, piano, saxophone, guitars and drum programming, giving the song a bright, melodic surface. Beneath that sweetness, however, the lyrics move in the opposite direction, with Madonna singing about heartbreak, disappointment and emotional recognition.

Although I Know It was not released as a single, it became part of Madonna’s wider 1980s single story through its use as a B-side. The song shows another side of the first album: less iconic than the major singles, but still valuable as evidence of Madonna’s early melodic instincts. It is sweet-toothed pop with a bruise underneath, a small track with enough attitude to avoid floating away.