"Makes Me Wonder" is the Grammy Award winning first single released from Maroon 5's second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long(2007). World premiering on the Las Vegas station Mix 94.1, the song has been released in several countries and was very well-received, becoming the band's first number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as the first rock song to top the same chart since Nickelback's How You Remind Me in 2001. The song broke a record previously held by Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" for the biggest jump to number-one in the history of the BillboardHot 100 chart, rising from number 64 to the top. Maroon 5 performed the song in May 2007 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. This song was #49 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.

The lyrics of "Makes Me Wonder" have two different meanings. One meaning is about Adam Levine's frustration at the state of politics and the US role in the war in Iraq. According to him, the song shows their confusion about the politics in the US. The song was also called a hard hitting pop rock anthem.

The second meaning is simply about love. The lyrics in the chorus reflects one of Levine's relationships that went horribly wrong. Levine states about their relationship, "It had something to do with our growing dissatisfaction with things and the confusion that was in the air."

The song was upgraded to the A-list of BBC Radio 1 on May 7, 2007.

This song was performed at the 2007 Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards, American Idol, and many talk shows.

It was featured as downloadable content for Rock Band on June 25, 2009.

The video premiered on MTV's Total Request Liveon March 29, 2007. From interviews given by the band members it was confirmed that the video is shot at a futuristic airport with the actual song content about heartache and politics. The video was shot in the Los Angeles International Airport and at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, and was directed by John Hillcoat. Levine said the director had an idea of turning the airport into a bizarre, surreal, sexually charged, fashionable world. In the video, the gate they are in is "M5", which stands for Maroon 5.

The song has two censored clean versions, the "super clean" and "clean" versions. The tracks are identical except the "super clean" version has the word "God" removed from the 2nd verse and the word "fuck" is more clearly censored out. The "Super clean" version was played at the 2007 Kids Choice Awards.

A kid-friendly version of "Makes Me Wonder" is covered by the Kidz Bop Kids on their album Kidz Bop 12.

The band won their 3rd Grammy award for "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" for "Makes Me Wonder" at the 50th Anniversary show of the Grammys on February 10, 2008. It was their second win in this category after "This Love".

The song has had one of the biggest bullets in Hot Adult history, with many AC radio stations putting it into heavy rotation mere days after its release. The song reached number 11 on the U.S. Adult Top 40 after only two weeks on the chart, becoming only the third song since 2000 to reach the top 15 of the Adult Top 40 in two weeks or less. The song was also released on the U.S. iTunes Store and climbed to number one on their top 100 sales chart.

In the Billboardmagazine issue dated May 12, 2007, Maroon 5 scored their first number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, due to strong radio airplay and 243,500 digital downloads. By doing so, they broke a record held by Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" for the biggest jump to number one in Hot 100 history, leaping from number 64 to number one (Clarkson's single had jumped from number 52 in October 2002). "Makes Me Wonder" remained at number one for a second week before falling to number two and then returning to number one in the following week. It is the first song by a rock band to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 since Nickelback did the same on December 22, 2001 with "How You Remind Me". The song reached number one again on June 2.

In the UK the song debuted at #19 with downloads alone a week before its physical release and rose to #2 the second week.

In Mexico went on to sell over 420,000 digital downloads.