See if you can remember the first time you heard this.

I don't know why I didn't come.

I don't know why I didn't come.

So this is the song Don't Know Why.

It was written by Jesse Harris and sung here by Nora Jones.

I definitely remember when I first heard it,

I'm Robin Hilton from NPR Music and all songs considered.

I'm here with WBGO and Jazz Knight in America's nation and hey,

hey, Robin.

And NPR Music's Ann Powers.

Hello, my smooth friends.

I'm just swooning here listening to this.

How about you, too?

Do you remember the first time you heard this?

I do.

I got an advanced CD in the mail from Blue Note Records.

This would have been two or three months before the album came out.

And I had seen Nora perform on somebody else's show in New York

with the great guitarist Charlie Hunter just as a hop-on guest.

So I knew who she was.

But as soon as I put this album on,

I was like, this sounds really different.

...