When You Gonna Learn?

"When You Gonna Learn"
	Single by Jamiroquai from the album Emergency on Planet Earth;
B-Side	When You Gonna Learn? (Canté Hondo Mix) When You Gonna Learn? (Original Demo) When You Gonna Learn? (Digeridoo Instrumental);
Released	October 12, 1992;
Recorded	1992;
Played Live	Yes;
Genre	Acid Jazz;
Length	3:50;
Writer	Jay Kay;
Producer	Jay Kay

When You Gonna Learn? is the first single off English funk band Jamiroquai's debut album Emergency on Planet Earth. It was released originally in October 1992 by Acid Jazz Records as an act of goodwill, before being re-released in September 1993 for the band's debut album.

Similar to other songs on the album (including the title track), the song features themes of environmentalism, capitalism, climate change, and war. The music video, directed by Morgan Lawley, was infamously pulled from MTV due to its graphic footage of seal clubbing, Nazi parties, animal experimentations, and whaling operations. The uncensored video remains up on the Jamiroquai channel.

Background

Prior to the release of "When You Gonna Learn?", Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay recorded the track "Natural Energy"^[1], which has not seen a wide release as of February 2026.

"When You Gonna Learn?" would be first played by Kiss 100 FM during the summer of 1992, albeit with a different structure to the released version. The song features a chord progression similar to that of Johnny "Hammond" Smith's "Los Conquistadores Chocolates", taken from his 1975 album "Gears". The booklet of the Acid Jazz Records release of the single bears a "special thanks" to Smith, although it is unknown whether he received any royalties.

The Cantè Hondo mix of the song borrows more heavily from the song, sampling a wind sound effect.