"They Don't Know" is a song composed and first recorded in 1979 by Kirsty MacColl. Though unsuccessful, the song was later recorded by Tracey Ullman in 1983. Ullman's version reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 8 in the US.
Original version
Composition and release
Recorded in Stiff Records' mobile studio, The China Shop, in the spring of 1979, Kirsty MacColl's original recording of "They Don't Know" "emphasized layered harmonies in which MacColl turns her own voice into a chorus of over-dubbed parts" - an evocation of a long-standing admiration for the Beach Boys engendered at age 7 by hearing her brother's copy of the "Good Vibrations" single: Besides the regular vinyl single release of 1 June 1979 a picture disc edition was issued 6 July 1979. The B-side to "They Don't Know" was MacColl's recording of her composition "Turn My Motor On" - some copies read "Motor On" - , a setlist staple of Drug Addix, the band MacColl had recently left (consideration had been given to making "Turn My Motor On" the A-side).
MacColl's "They Don't Know" reached number two on the Music Week airplay chart without generating sufficient sales to reach the UK Singles Chart - a shortfall blamed on a strike at the distributors for Stiff Records keeping the single out of stores, although its producer Liam Sternberg attributes the failure of "They Don't Know" to ill feeling which developed between MacColl and Stiff Records president Dave Robinson: Promo copies of a followup single: "You Caught Me Out", were pressed in October 1979 but Stiff opted to shelve the single, with MacColl's first release subsequent to "They Don't Know" being her remake of "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" released in 1981 on Polydor.
MacColl's version of "They Don't Know" would not make its album debut until 1995 on the singer's retrospective album Galore.
Track listing
"They Don't Know" (MacColl) "[Turn My] Motor On" (MacColl)
Tracey Ullman version
In October 1983, Tracey Ullman reached number two on the UK Singles Chart with her recording of "They Don't Know" for Stiff Records; the track was included on Ullman's debut album You Broke My Heart in 17 Places. "They Don't Know" was ranked at number 23 on the year-end tally of UK chart singles and afforded Ullman a number-one hit in Ireland for two weeks, and it spent nine weeks at number one in Norway.
Well known in the UK as an actress/comedienne, Ullman had had a top-10 hit with her debut single "Breakaway". Pete Waterman, whose Loose End Productions had recently provided Stiff hit singles with the Belle Stars, suggested to his friend Kirsty MacColl that she pitch her composition "They Don't Know" for Ullman to record as her second single.
The production of Ullman's "They Don't Know" was credited to Peter Collins, Waterman's Loose Ends partner. Waterman honed the track, including having MacColl and Rosemary Robinson (the wife of Stiff Records president Dave Robinson) "add Shangri-La-type backing vocals", in Waterman's words, and having MacColl reprise her original "bay-ay-be-ee” to intro the third verse (as Ullman had a limited high-end range).
MTV cofounder Robert Pittman saw the video made to promote Ullman's "They Don't Know", and despite Ullman having nil exposure in the U.S., Pittman invited her to be a guest MTV VJ for the week of February 13–18, 1984. The resultant positive response caused MCA Records to rush-release "They Don't Know" as Ullman's debut US single, which eventually reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the Adult Contemporary.
"They Don't Know" was Ullman's only Top 40 hit in the U.S. Although she had three more entries in the UK Top 30 - including the top-10 hit "Move Over Darling" - Ullman, when asked in a 2017 The Guardian interview "If you could edit your past, what would you change?", said: "I would have stopped making records after 'They Don’t Know'."
In 1997, "They Don't Know" became the theme song for the final three seasons of Ullman's HBO television series Tracey Takes On.... The Ullman version was used as the theme for the opening credits of Our Nixon, a 2013 documentary about U.S. President Richard Nixon.
Ullman sang the song in 2002 at a memorial tribute concert for MacColl, who was killed in a boating accident in December 2000. It was her first public singing performance in nearly 20 years.