You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)

The fourth track on Body and Soul was cut live with the full band in the Manhattan Masonic hall in January 1984. Jackson asked Graham Maby to play it with slap bass, which Maby admitted was not one of his strengths, though he thought it came out fine. Vinnie Zummo plays the funk riff and the jazz-inflected solo, and the horns punch through the choruses. The title is the whole argument: a lecture, half to himself, about wanting things without knowing what they are.

Released in America in April 1984 with Cha Cha Loco on the B-side, it reached fifteen on the Hot 100 in June and stayed on the chart for sixteen weeks, second only to Steppin' Out among his American singles. It also made the rock and adult contemporary charts. Britain was less interested: the September single peaked at seventy-seven. The 12-inch added a special remix and a dub version.

On stage it became one of his central songs. It entered the set on the British music show The Tube in April 1984, and setlist.fm now logs more than 640 performances, the fourth highest of his career, through to the 2026 tour. The 1986 Big World tour version, stretched to five and a half minutes, is on Live 1980/86.