she/her
We can dump the one filmed at the supermarket. Long outstayed its welcome.
The 90's US One-Hit Wonders Rate: WINNER REVEALED - Goodbye, farewell and amen
- Thread starter Ironheade
- Start date
he/him
I could live with this
she/her
As long as Haddaway is safe.
she/her
You're my favourite person.
Sigh. It had to happen some time.
Expect avatar changes soon.
5. YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE
Average score: 8.511
Highest scores: 4 x 11 (@Filippa , @Andy French , @K94 , @pop3blow2); 13 x 10 (@Ironheade , @CorgiCorgiCorgi , @2014 , @Sprockrooster , @DJHazey , @DominoDancing , @unnameable , @CasuallyCrazed , @Conan , @Hurricane Drunk , @4Roses , @Remorque )
Lowest scores: 2 x 3 (@Empty Shoebox , @Seventeen Days )
Chart positions: #36 Hot 100, #30 Radio Songs, #14 Mainstream Top 40, #11 Adult Top 40, #8 Modern Rock
Year-End Hot 100: N/A
Who? Oh yeah, them...
We've already seen the most extreme example of the one-hit wonder yet in this rate. It's “My Boo”, the only single the Ghost Town DJs ever released. But while the New Radicals cannot quite snatch their crown as the MARRS of the 90's, they certainly gave it a damn good effort. Not least because “You Get What You Give” has remained such an iconic example of aggressively upbeat, in a quintessentially 1998 way, retro yet contemporary pop music. It's still everywhere today, and it's one of the songs that inspired me to launch this thing in the first place. So let's find out: what was so radical about these New Radicals, and what must they have given to get what they got?
I don't remember this Bangles album, truth be told...
As with everything New Radicals – yes, this is another band that is effectively a one-man project, though not quite as extreme as, for example, White Town – the story of “You Get What You Give” begins with Gregg Alexander. Raised in a conservative household of Jehovah's Witnesses in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Gregg got his start playing in a local band called The Circus in the mid-80's. (Funny story, since we've already exposed Macy Gray as a classmate of Marilyn Manson in high school. At a local battle of the bands in 1984, The Circus competed against Marilyn Manson's future lead guitarist John 5! Now we just have to wait for Twiggy to pop up somewhere...) Anyway, Gregg eventually went solo, and his demo tapes ended up at A&M Records, where they caught the attention of Rick Nowels: a man best known for his longtime collaboration as co-writer and producer with Belinda Carlisle right through the 90's, but he'd also made his bones in the preceding decade working with some big names like Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett and John Waite. (He also gets us an OHW CROSSOVER, as he produced two tracks on The Graces' album Perfect View – the band that was the launching pad for Meredith Brooks, if you don't recall.) The two immediately hit it off, and Nowels served as the producer for Gregg's solo debut album Michigan Rain, which came out in 1989.
Uh oh. I spy a Cousin Oliver!
But Rick Nowels evidently still believed in him, and he got the chance to move over to Epic Records, where the partnership co-wrote and produced another album called Intoxifornication together, putting it out in 1992. Intoxifornication contained several songs from Michigan Rain, some re-recorded and some in their original versions, alongside its set of original material, but it did no better than Gregg's previous album had. It did, however, bring him into contact with a certain Danielle Brisebois, who sung some backing vocals on the album. Danielle had had a long and tumultuous journey as a child actress: she had had her first starring role in the horror film The Premonition at the age of seven, played Molly in the original Broadway cast of Annie (fun fact: that's her voice Jay-Z sampled in “Hard Knock Life”), and among several minor television roles, she was part of the main cast of Archie Bunker's Place, the sequel series to All in the Family. Though her role in the lattermost of these had won her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV in 1982, Danielle had long since tired of acting, and was ready to make her way as a recording artist. Gregg helped her along the way by producing, co-writing and contributing duet vocals on one track to her solo debut Arrive All Over You, which came out in 1994, also on Epic. It actually won some decent critical notices, even favourable comparisons to Jagged Little Pill, but that did not help her out commercially. Her cover of Brenton Wood's 1967 soul hit “Gimme Little Sign” attracted a bit of attention in Sweden and Germany, but in the US, neither it nor its parent album nor any of her other singles went anywhere. Oh well. Fourth time's the charm for these guys, right?
Sadly, Gregg's ploy for approval with the foot fetishist fanbase didn't catch on.
Spinning his wheels as a solo artist, a frustrated Gregg Alexander formed the New Radicals in 1997, and got his third shot at a major-label deal out of it, signing to MCA the next year, with a $600,000 advance for their debut (and only) album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. When it came out in October 1998, it was quite a surprise for the often dour alternative rock of the late 90's, instead codifying the summer-sun power pop that would characterise mainstream pop rock for the decade's last few years. Gregg drew influences from the likes of Todd Rundgren and Hall and Oates, still with one foot in the slick West Coast pop-rock and blue-eyed soul sounds of the late 80's that had often seen the likes of Rick Nowels behind the boards. Yet paired them with cynical, sarcastic, and frequently politically critical lyrics not exactly in keeping with the slick and upbeat sounds of the record, and the overall result is quite an interesting beast that avoids ever becoming redundant with any of its contemporaries. The New Radicals had a revolving door policy, with Gregg being the only member of the band, such as it was, to appear on every song. The rest was filled out by session players, including his old friend Rick Nowels, Michael Jackson's former musical director Greg Phillinganes, Paul McCartney's guitarist Rusty Anderson, and uber-prolific session percussionists Josh Freese and Lenny Castro. Danielle Brisebois was the only other official member, contributing keyboards, percussion and backing vocals, but several of the songs didn't feature her at all, and that includes “You Get What You Give”, which came out as the New Radicals' lead single a month after the album's release. And thereby hangs a tale.
They love you when you're on all the covers...
“You Get What You Give” saw plenty of success on its own, in fair part thanks to its iconic video of the New Radicals and their hangers-on causing mayhem in a mall. (And in an OHW CROSSOVER, its director Evan Bernard also did videos for Ben Folds and Lit!) What the press paid attention to, however, was the lines at the end of the song where they called various celebrities of the time “fakes” and threatened to “kick their asses”. Gregg said that he had no actual issue with any of the celebrities he mentioned, and claimed that he had only written those lines as a contrast to the ones focusing on social issues immediately preceding it: this was a meta-swipe at the vapidity of celebrity culture, to see if the tabloids would focus on the superficial disses instead of the real problems that he'd brought up. Which indeed they did, so I suppose his point was well-made. As for the reactions those so lampooned? Marilyn Manson took it the hardest, saying that he wasn't angry that Gregg said he'd kick his ass... but he was angry that he'd been mentioned in the same sentence as Courtney Love! (The two had a bit of a feud going on for a while there. That's kind of Courtney's thing. Just ask Dave Grohl, Tori Amos, Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, Kathleen Hanna...) Beck was more equable: according to him, Gregg came running up to him in the supermarket once, apologising profusely and saying it was nothing personal, and Beck took no offence in return. Hanson, well, we'll get to them later. Unfortunately, nothing of Courtney Love's reaction to her mention, if any, is recorded. Too bad... I'm sure it'd be a treat.
So what do I think?
TEN.
The intro secures that score for “You Get What You Give” alone. First those few plinking keyboard chords, then a drumbeat countered by a skippy electric piano rhythm in the right stereo channel and a few whooshing synth noises, then with Gregg's yelp of “ONE TWO THREE FOUR!”, it all kicks off! It's a masterpiece of tension and release, crashing right into the single walloping drum fill that is as perfectly judged as Dave Grohl's iconic entrance into “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and gives us a generational anthem just as brilliant as that one. You guys know, I'm a sucker for thumping uptempo piano beats, and this is a particularly good one, the fluid and melodic chord sequences adding life and colour to the relentless pounding of the chords. The bright, hard mix is as immaculate as anything ever conceived in the heyday of 80's power-pop, yet it is given a contemporary update that avoids ever sounding dated, with a fat and rounded bass tone that accentuates the melodic lines nicely, and a crisp and well-balanced drum sound that might just be the best in the rate. There's just so much life in the instrumentation, such that you never know what might pop out at you next: a playful jingle of hand bells, a multicoloured whorl of distorted guitar texture smeared over the piano line, a boisterous guitar solo that starts out with subtle melodic delay-pedalled lines before Gregg's “OW!” gives it permission to launch off into the outright freak-out zone. Gregg's bolshy vocal performance, crackling with so much energy he seems like he might start bouncing off the walls of the studio, and never afraid to launch into an exuberant sky-high falsetto or a hoarsely joyous rasp, like he's so overwhelmed with energy that he just can't help it, is the most life-affirming thing you're likely to find in the music of 1998. Nothing he says ever sounds the least bit cheesy, even when he's dipping into full on empowerment mode in the midst of the clever, sarcastic jabs at the celebrity culture and youthful anomie of the late 90's. You just have to say: yes! Yes, I do have the music in me! And as they vamp on the basic chords going into the end, before the drums get thumping away faster and Gregg makes the socially-critical undercurrent of the song more and more explicit? Well, that's just one final bit of ear candy. Don't say Gregg and company don't spoil you. What can I say? “You Get What You Give” is good old-fashioned classic popcraft, the way it just was not done in 1998, simultaneously of its time yet way outside it. And thank god for that. It only makes it all the more special. You want to define what a bop is? A bop is “You Get What You Give”, and things that sound like it. What a song, man. What a song.
Where Are They Now?™
You think you know one-hit wonders, and how artists become one? Buddy, you ain't seen shit yet.
You may have taken notice of those chart positions for “You Get What You Give”, and perhaps thought that they seemed oddly low. I don't blame you, I was in the same boat – I mean, it was a bit before I was able to notice contemporary pop music, but in my childhood years, meaning 2001-2006 approximately, it seemed to be everywhere, and I hear it all the time in the wild even to this day! Is it perhaps one of those songs that wasn't a huge hit at the time of its release, but gets more appreciation in the future from recurrent play? Well, yes, but there's also the fact that it was much bigger overseas, as were the New Radicals in general. In the UK, “You Get What You Give” charted in the Top 5, while the album made the Top 10, and the single was number one in Canada and New Zealand; meanwhile, back in the US, though Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too was certified platinum, it failed to make the Top 40 on the Billboard 200, falling just short at #41. Anyway, the New Radicals kept promoting with live shows, though the cancellation of their appearance at the Atlanta festival RockFest in 1999, and of their planned UK tour the same year, sparked rumours that there was trouble behind the scenes; meanwhile, Gregg would tend to use interviews to talk about political issues rather than the music, showcasing that he was already a little uncomfortable with the fame he had suddenly been thrust into. But for the moment, the record-industry machine was grinding on. In a press release, the second single was announced to be “Someday We'll Know”, and it was set to be released in late July of 1998, with a video already shot...
...And then on July 12, 1998, less than two weeks before the scheduled release of the single, Gregg announced that the New Radicals had broken up and the release was cancelled.
Why? Well, the reason Gregg cited in the press release was that he hated the rigamarole of touring, and that he had lost interest in fronting a band that was already considered to be a “one hit wonder” with no second single out. According to him, the famous bucket hat was being used in live performances as a tool to disguise the growing lack of enthusiasm on his face, as he had “accomplished all his goals” for the New Radicals as a project with the one album and had no desire to make any more, and was more comfortable working behind the scenes anyhow. “Someday We'll Know” did eventually trickle out as a single in March 1999, but it saw no success, failing to reach the Hot 100 and only making a relatively lowly #28 on the Adult Top 40. The reasoning was that, with no band available to promote the single and no chance of there being any further hits, promotion was kept as minimal as possible and most radio stations were reluctant to add the song to their playlists. Still, I think that the song very well could have been a hit, if perhaps not quite as impactful as “You Get What You Give”, had the New Radicals still been around to promote it: the song was covered by Hall & Oates in 2003 (with none other than Todd Rundgren playing guitar to boot!), and by Mandy Moore and Switchfoot's Jon Foreman as a duet on the soundtrack of A Walk to Remember, so clearly people saw something in it... and besides that, it's just a very nice thoughtful pop ballad with some well-written lyrics reminiscing on a broken relationship. I'll tell you this, too: the whole Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too album is pretty damn good. But no, Gregg had to go in for that whole artistic purity and creative satisfaction thing. Hmph. The nerve of him! Why doesn't my monkey dance for me, hm?!
Oh hey, I didn't know Santana did a song with Vanessa Carlton!
Anyhow, I don't think Gregg can be too upset about anything – he ended things on his own terms, and has been very successful since on those same terms. With the appearances of Dan Wilson and Linda Perry, we've tackled two branches of this rate's Holy Trinity of alternative rockers who found much greater and longer-lasting success as pop songwriters, and Gregg now joins them as the third. He's been working consistently as a writer and producer for the last twenty years, often in collaboration with good ol' Rick Nowels and Danielle Brisebois, as well as the latter's husband Nick Lashley. In fact, he had concurrently been working on Danielle's second and final solo album Portable Life at the same time as Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, but it was shelved before its intended 1999 release date and didn't come out until 2008. But Gregg definitely landed on his feet, writing Santana and Michelle Branch's massive 2002 hit “The Game of Love”, which won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals! And while Gregg continuing to aid and abet the career of Ronan Keating cannot quite be forgiven, I think his contributions to the work of Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Texas, among others, mostly make up for that. He even worked with his old punching bags Hanson, co-writing “Lost Without Each Other” for the grown-up incarnation of the brothers in 2004. Zac, the band's little drummer boy, referred to him as “a character, but a cool guy”. No bad blood, then – good!
Meanwhile, Danielle Brisebois has kept up consistent work as a songwriter herself, though not quite to the same degree of success. Her most prominent efforts were Natasha Bedingfield's “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine”; she also wrote Donna Summer's 2008 #1 Hot Dance Club Songs hit “Stamp Your Feet”, and has worked on tracks for Kylie Minogue, Kelly Clarkson and Leona Lewis, among others. She and Gregg have remained friends all these years, and despite neither one ever having had any intentions to reunite the New Radicals, they've continued to work together every now and then. They and Rick Nowels teamed up as The Not So Silent Majority in order to record a campaign song for Barack Obama in 2008; following this, Gregg and Danielle co-wrote “Love is a Hurricane”, Boyzone's first single following the untimely death of Stephen Gately, in 2010. Their greatest moment of glory, however, came in 2013, when Gregg, Danielle, Rick Nowels and Nick Lashley got together to do the soundtrack for the Keira Knightley/Mark Ruffalo dramedy Begin Again. The big promoted single from that soundtrack was “Lost Stars”, performed by Knightley and Adam Levine. It's pretty good, by the way – better than anything Maroon 5 has put out since 2007, at least. Anyway, it got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2015, where it lost to “Glory”, John Legend and Common's effort from Selma. And that was one case where the Oscars somehow didn't screw it up and GAVE THE DESERVING NOMINEE THE AWARD (gasp!), so I can't be too bitter – hey, a nomination's nothing to sneeze at on its own. “Lost Stars” even made it all the way to #1! ...In South Korea, for some reason. Somebody answer me, does Maroon 5 have a sort of “Mexicans love Morrissey” situation going on in South Korea?
Good movie, by the way. Not the kind of thing that's usually my cup o' joe, but good.
Gregg is serious about wanting to live out of the spotlight, by the way – since 1999, he has only granted two full interviews, one in 2014, and one to Billboard just last year. A solo song called “A Love Like That”, probably an old New Radicals demo, leaked onto the Internet in 2004, but other than that he has never shown the slightest desire to return to music as a performer. It's interesting to compare Gregg to Lee Mavers, the rate's other retro pop genius with brief and bright-burning critical acclaim before they settled into reclusiveness and multiple retirements. One has kept working continuously for twenty years to much success, the other fell off the face of the Earth, but what they have in common is that they crafted one of the most shiningly perfect pop songs ever recorded before the spark was snuffed out with ignominious speed. But what sparks they were – and as with all artists with a brief career, the very briefness of it has only added to their legend. We may wish there was more, but a diamond is all the more precious for its rarity, is it not?
The most recently available photo of Gregg. Let himself go a bit, hasn't he?
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
Come around, we'll kick your asses
Seventeen Days (3): This song tries too hard to be hip and “edgy”. It might have been at least kind of enjoyable, if it hadn’t been on the radio every 5 minutes.
Empty Shoebox (3): Just nonsense.
We've got the music in us
chanex (8): There are so many songs on this list I hate in theory and then have to be honest with myself about their iconic status in my history of listening to music and this might be the archetype.
ModeRed (7): Fun, upbeat, and just a bit like several others in this rate.
Auntie Beryl (8.2): For all that Greg”g” Alexander went on to perform gruesome acts of cruelty upon the public with his stewardship of Ronan Keating’s solo career, it all started out OK. It was always cynical, though – pretty much all the acts named and slated in the “controversial” music biz bit were on the same label, so were presumably in on the drama. However, top tune and all that.
WowWowWowWow (8): Up until the “fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson” part, it could have been a classic singalong hit. But that part left a weird taste in my mouth, then and now. And the fact that Gregg would later go on to be a rent-a-writer for the pop world? I SEE YOU GREGG.
saviodxl (9): It's angsty but actually not really angsty. What's wrong with a photoshoot with Hanson tough?
Ganache (9): Classic song that everybody across the board liked.
yuuurei (8.5): Just a nice tune with fun lyrics. It's good.
berserkboi (9.9): So many great things here but I still can’t give it a total 10 as I am not rooting for it to win, nor do I think it needs the extra nudge to get there! You’ve got such great music in you, Mr. Alexander!!
DominoDancing (10): This was another potential 11 for me. What a great timeless pop song this is (well, unless the last 30 seconds when the name-dropping starts). I would not be sad if this won the rate.
DJHazey (10): This needs to be a male vocalist who bucks the trend and makes the Top 10! Makes me so proud to be a 90s kid because this is just everything.
Sprockrooster (10): Please do not kill this massive track misandryjustice. Imagine this winning and trumping every female vocal in this. Oh wait, this isn't the LAST FM forum.
unnameable (10): I prefer “someday we’ll know” because I adore Danielle Brisebois, but this is an epic song.
CasuallyCrazed (10): The New Radicals brought us so much. This + that amazing Mandy Moore Walk to Remember collab.
CorgiCorgiCorgi (10): This New Radicals album was great and I feel like if it had been released 5 years later it would be a Popjustice essential.
iheartpoptarts (10): One of the most euphoric songs in the rate.
2014 (10): A song that I could listen to on repeat for ages. Always takes me back - crazy!
4Roses (10): If I ever own a convertible this will be the first track I'll blast, it's what she deserves.
Filippa (11): One of my all-time favourite songs! It never fails to put me into good mood and I never get tired of it.
pop3blow2 (11): I thought it was gonna be hard picking my 11 & while there were a handful of solid 10s that were contenders, this was actually a no brainer. I actually think this might be a contender for the best ‘one-hit wonder’ of all time. (That said, I was actually pretty obsessed with this whole album at the time, it really good.). My favorite band of all time is the Manic Street Preachers. When they cam out in 1990, they said their goal was to make one amazing album > sell 10 million copies > & breakup at the height of international super-cool. They, of course, did none of that. Nor did the New Radicals, but in a way they fill that level of ‘purity’ in my brain. I love they had one amazing single > made one fantastic album > & imploded on the verge of international supercool. Gregg Alexander was wise beyond his years. Is this my favorite song in the rate? No, there are a few others I like more. But it deserves to win, so I'm giving it my 11.
Andy French (11): Okay so this song is catchy but also BEAUTIFULLY written and composed, which I genuinely don't think it gets enough credit for; this might sound like a strange comparison but I see it as a companion piece/sequel to Bowie's "Heroes", if only for the scorchingly defiant, apocalyptic, "I don't care if we die, I'm not going down without a fucking FIGHT" vibes it gives off. Gregg Alexander is a genius, and he well and truly snapped with this project.
Expect avatar changes soon.
5. YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE
Average score: 8.511
Highest scores: 4 x 11 (@Filippa , @Andy French , @K94 , @pop3blow2); 13 x 10 (@Ironheade , @CorgiCorgiCorgi , @2014 , @Sprockrooster , @DJHazey , @DominoDancing , @unnameable , @CasuallyCrazed , @Conan , @Hurricane Drunk , @4Roses , @Remorque )
Lowest scores: 2 x 3 (@Empty Shoebox , @Seventeen Days )
Chart positions: #36 Hot 100, #30 Radio Songs, #14 Mainstream Top 40, #11 Adult Top 40, #8 Modern Rock
Year-End Hot 100: N/A
Who? Oh yeah, them...
We've already seen the most extreme example of the one-hit wonder yet in this rate. It's “My Boo”, the only single the Ghost Town DJs ever released. But while the New Radicals cannot quite snatch their crown as the MARRS of the 90's, they certainly gave it a damn good effort. Not least because “You Get What You Give” has remained such an iconic example of aggressively upbeat, in a quintessentially 1998 way, retro yet contemporary pop music. It's still everywhere today, and it's one of the songs that inspired me to launch this thing in the first place. So let's find out: what was so radical about these New Radicals, and what must they have given to get what they got?
I don't remember this Bangles album, truth be told...
As with everything New Radicals – yes, this is another band that is effectively a one-man project, though not quite as extreme as, for example, White Town – the story of “You Get What You Give” begins with Gregg Alexander. Raised in a conservative household of Jehovah's Witnesses in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Gregg got his start playing in a local band called The Circus in the mid-80's. (Funny story, since we've already exposed Macy Gray as a classmate of Marilyn Manson in high school. At a local battle of the bands in 1984, The Circus competed against Marilyn Manson's future lead guitarist John 5! Now we just have to wait for Twiggy to pop up somewhere...) Anyway, Gregg eventually went solo, and his demo tapes ended up at A&M Records, where they caught the attention of Rick Nowels: a man best known for his longtime collaboration as co-writer and producer with Belinda Carlisle right through the 90's, but he'd also made his bones in the preceding decade working with some big names like Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett and John Waite. (He also gets us an OHW CROSSOVER, as he produced two tracks on The Graces' album Perfect View – the band that was the launching pad for Meredith Brooks, if you don't recall.) The two immediately hit it off, and Nowels served as the producer for Gregg's solo debut album Michigan Rain, which came out in 1989.
Uh oh. I spy a Cousin Oliver!
But Rick Nowels evidently still believed in him, and he got the chance to move over to Epic Records, where the partnership co-wrote and produced another album called Intoxifornication together, putting it out in 1992. Intoxifornication contained several songs from Michigan Rain, some re-recorded and some in their original versions, alongside its set of original material, but it did no better than Gregg's previous album had. It did, however, bring him into contact with a certain Danielle Brisebois, who sung some backing vocals on the album. Danielle had had a long and tumultuous journey as a child actress: she had had her first starring role in the horror film The Premonition at the age of seven, played Molly in the original Broadway cast of Annie (fun fact: that's her voice Jay-Z sampled in “Hard Knock Life”), and among several minor television roles, she was part of the main cast of Archie Bunker's Place, the sequel series to All in the Family. Though her role in the lattermost of these had won her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV in 1982, Danielle had long since tired of acting, and was ready to make her way as a recording artist. Gregg helped her along the way by producing, co-writing and contributing duet vocals on one track to her solo debut Arrive All Over You, which came out in 1994, also on Epic. It actually won some decent critical notices, even favourable comparisons to Jagged Little Pill, but that did not help her out commercially. Her cover of Brenton Wood's 1967 soul hit “Gimme Little Sign” attracted a bit of attention in Sweden and Germany, but in the US, neither it nor its parent album nor any of her other singles went anywhere. Oh well. Fourth time's the charm for these guys, right?
Sadly, Gregg's ploy for approval with the foot fetishist fanbase didn't catch on.
Spinning his wheels as a solo artist, a frustrated Gregg Alexander formed the New Radicals in 1997, and got his third shot at a major-label deal out of it, signing to MCA the next year, with a $600,000 advance for their debut (and only) album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. When it came out in October 1998, it was quite a surprise for the often dour alternative rock of the late 90's, instead codifying the summer-sun power pop that would characterise mainstream pop rock for the decade's last few years. Gregg drew influences from the likes of Todd Rundgren and Hall and Oates, still with one foot in the slick West Coast pop-rock and blue-eyed soul sounds of the late 80's that had often seen the likes of Rick Nowels behind the boards. Yet paired them with cynical, sarcastic, and frequently politically critical lyrics not exactly in keeping with the slick and upbeat sounds of the record, and the overall result is quite an interesting beast that avoids ever becoming redundant with any of its contemporaries. The New Radicals had a revolving door policy, with Gregg being the only member of the band, such as it was, to appear on every song. The rest was filled out by session players, including his old friend Rick Nowels, Michael Jackson's former musical director Greg Phillinganes, Paul McCartney's guitarist Rusty Anderson, and uber-prolific session percussionists Josh Freese and Lenny Castro. Danielle Brisebois was the only other official member, contributing keyboards, percussion and backing vocals, but several of the songs didn't feature her at all, and that includes “You Get What You Give”, which came out as the New Radicals' lead single a month after the album's release. And thereby hangs a tale.
They love you when you're on all the covers...
“You Get What You Give” saw plenty of success on its own, in fair part thanks to its iconic video of the New Radicals and their hangers-on causing mayhem in a mall. (And in an OHW CROSSOVER, its director Evan Bernard also did videos for Ben Folds and Lit!) What the press paid attention to, however, was the lines at the end of the song where they called various celebrities of the time “fakes” and threatened to “kick their asses”. Gregg said that he had no actual issue with any of the celebrities he mentioned, and claimed that he had only written those lines as a contrast to the ones focusing on social issues immediately preceding it: this was a meta-swipe at the vapidity of celebrity culture, to see if the tabloids would focus on the superficial disses instead of the real problems that he'd brought up. Which indeed they did, so I suppose his point was well-made. As for the reactions those so lampooned? Marilyn Manson took it the hardest, saying that he wasn't angry that Gregg said he'd kick his ass... but he was angry that he'd been mentioned in the same sentence as Courtney Love! (The two had a bit of a feud going on for a while there. That's kind of Courtney's thing. Just ask Dave Grohl, Tori Amos, Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, Kathleen Hanna...) Beck was more equable: according to him, Gregg came running up to him in the supermarket once, apologising profusely and saying it was nothing personal, and Beck took no offence in return. Hanson, well, we'll get to them later. Unfortunately, nothing of Courtney Love's reaction to her mention, if any, is recorded. Too bad... I'm sure it'd be a treat.
So what do I think?
TEN.
The intro secures that score for “You Get What You Give” alone. First those few plinking keyboard chords, then a drumbeat countered by a skippy electric piano rhythm in the right stereo channel and a few whooshing synth noises, then with Gregg's yelp of “ONE TWO THREE FOUR!”, it all kicks off! It's a masterpiece of tension and release, crashing right into the single walloping drum fill that is as perfectly judged as Dave Grohl's iconic entrance into “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and gives us a generational anthem just as brilliant as that one. You guys know, I'm a sucker for thumping uptempo piano beats, and this is a particularly good one, the fluid and melodic chord sequences adding life and colour to the relentless pounding of the chords. The bright, hard mix is as immaculate as anything ever conceived in the heyday of 80's power-pop, yet it is given a contemporary update that avoids ever sounding dated, with a fat and rounded bass tone that accentuates the melodic lines nicely, and a crisp and well-balanced drum sound that might just be the best in the rate. There's just so much life in the instrumentation, such that you never know what might pop out at you next: a playful jingle of hand bells, a multicoloured whorl of distorted guitar texture smeared over the piano line, a boisterous guitar solo that starts out with subtle melodic delay-pedalled lines before Gregg's “OW!” gives it permission to launch off into the outright freak-out zone. Gregg's bolshy vocal performance, crackling with so much energy he seems like he might start bouncing off the walls of the studio, and never afraid to launch into an exuberant sky-high falsetto or a hoarsely joyous rasp, like he's so overwhelmed with energy that he just can't help it, is the most life-affirming thing you're likely to find in the music of 1998. Nothing he says ever sounds the least bit cheesy, even when he's dipping into full on empowerment mode in the midst of the clever, sarcastic jabs at the celebrity culture and youthful anomie of the late 90's. You just have to say: yes! Yes, I do have the music in me! And as they vamp on the basic chords going into the end, before the drums get thumping away faster and Gregg makes the socially-critical undercurrent of the song more and more explicit? Well, that's just one final bit of ear candy. Don't say Gregg and company don't spoil you. What can I say? “You Get What You Give” is good old-fashioned classic popcraft, the way it just was not done in 1998, simultaneously of its time yet way outside it. And thank god for that. It only makes it all the more special. You want to define what a bop is? A bop is “You Get What You Give”, and things that sound like it. What a song, man. What a song.
Where Are They Now?™
You think you know one-hit wonders, and how artists become one? Buddy, you ain't seen shit yet.
You may have taken notice of those chart positions for “You Get What You Give”, and perhaps thought that they seemed oddly low. I don't blame you, I was in the same boat – I mean, it was a bit before I was able to notice contemporary pop music, but in my childhood years, meaning 2001-2006 approximately, it seemed to be everywhere, and I hear it all the time in the wild even to this day! Is it perhaps one of those songs that wasn't a huge hit at the time of its release, but gets more appreciation in the future from recurrent play? Well, yes, but there's also the fact that it was much bigger overseas, as were the New Radicals in general. In the UK, “You Get What You Give” charted in the Top 5, while the album made the Top 10, and the single was number one in Canada and New Zealand; meanwhile, back in the US, though Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too was certified platinum, it failed to make the Top 40 on the Billboard 200, falling just short at #41. Anyway, the New Radicals kept promoting with live shows, though the cancellation of their appearance at the Atlanta festival RockFest in 1999, and of their planned UK tour the same year, sparked rumours that there was trouble behind the scenes; meanwhile, Gregg would tend to use interviews to talk about political issues rather than the music, showcasing that he was already a little uncomfortable with the fame he had suddenly been thrust into. But for the moment, the record-industry machine was grinding on. In a press release, the second single was announced to be “Someday We'll Know”, and it was set to be released in late July of 1998, with a video already shot...
...And then on July 12, 1998, less than two weeks before the scheduled release of the single, Gregg announced that the New Radicals had broken up and the release was cancelled.
Why? Well, the reason Gregg cited in the press release was that he hated the rigamarole of touring, and that he had lost interest in fronting a band that was already considered to be a “one hit wonder” with no second single out. According to him, the famous bucket hat was being used in live performances as a tool to disguise the growing lack of enthusiasm on his face, as he had “accomplished all his goals” for the New Radicals as a project with the one album and had no desire to make any more, and was more comfortable working behind the scenes anyhow. “Someday We'll Know” did eventually trickle out as a single in March 1999, but it saw no success, failing to reach the Hot 100 and only making a relatively lowly #28 on the Adult Top 40. The reasoning was that, with no band available to promote the single and no chance of there being any further hits, promotion was kept as minimal as possible and most radio stations were reluctant to add the song to their playlists. Still, I think that the song very well could have been a hit, if perhaps not quite as impactful as “You Get What You Give”, had the New Radicals still been around to promote it: the song was covered by Hall & Oates in 2003 (with none other than Todd Rundgren playing guitar to boot!), and by Mandy Moore and Switchfoot's Jon Foreman as a duet on the soundtrack of A Walk to Remember, so clearly people saw something in it... and besides that, it's just a very nice thoughtful pop ballad with some well-written lyrics reminiscing on a broken relationship. I'll tell you this, too: the whole Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too album is pretty damn good. But no, Gregg had to go in for that whole artistic purity and creative satisfaction thing. Hmph. The nerve of him! Why doesn't my monkey dance for me, hm?!
Oh hey, I didn't know Santana did a song with Vanessa Carlton!
Anyhow, I don't think Gregg can be too upset about anything – he ended things on his own terms, and has been very successful since on those same terms. With the appearances of Dan Wilson and Linda Perry, we've tackled two branches of this rate's Holy Trinity of alternative rockers who found much greater and longer-lasting success as pop songwriters, and Gregg now joins them as the third. He's been working consistently as a writer and producer for the last twenty years, often in collaboration with good ol' Rick Nowels and Danielle Brisebois, as well as the latter's husband Nick Lashley. In fact, he had concurrently been working on Danielle's second and final solo album Portable Life at the same time as Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, but it was shelved before its intended 1999 release date and didn't come out until 2008. But Gregg definitely landed on his feet, writing Santana and Michelle Branch's massive 2002 hit “The Game of Love”, which won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals! And while Gregg continuing to aid and abet the career of Ronan Keating cannot quite be forgiven, I think his contributions to the work of Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Texas, among others, mostly make up for that. He even worked with his old punching bags Hanson, co-writing “Lost Without Each Other” for the grown-up incarnation of the brothers in 2004. Zac, the band's little drummer boy, referred to him as “a character, but a cool guy”. No bad blood, then – good!
Meanwhile, Danielle Brisebois has kept up consistent work as a songwriter herself, though not quite to the same degree of success. Her most prominent efforts were Natasha Bedingfield's “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine”; she also wrote Donna Summer's 2008 #1 Hot Dance Club Songs hit “Stamp Your Feet”, and has worked on tracks for Kylie Minogue, Kelly Clarkson and Leona Lewis, among others. She and Gregg have remained friends all these years, and despite neither one ever having had any intentions to reunite the New Radicals, they've continued to work together every now and then. They and Rick Nowels teamed up as The Not So Silent Majority in order to record a campaign song for Barack Obama in 2008; following this, Gregg and Danielle co-wrote “Love is a Hurricane”, Boyzone's first single following the untimely death of Stephen Gately, in 2010. Their greatest moment of glory, however, came in 2013, when Gregg, Danielle, Rick Nowels and Nick Lashley got together to do the soundtrack for the Keira Knightley/Mark Ruffalo dramedy Begin Again. The big promoted single from that soundtrack was “Lost Stars”, performed by Knightley and Adam Levine. It's pretty good, by the way – better than anything Maroon 5 has put out since 2007, at least. Anyway, it got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2015, where it lost to “Glory”, John Legend and Common's effort from Selma. And that was one case where the Oscars somehow didn't screw it up and GAVE THE DESERVING NOMINEE THE AWARD (gasp!), so I can't be too bitter – hey, a nomination's nothing to sneeze at on its own. “Lost Stars” even made it all the way to #1! ...In South Korea, for some reason. Somebody answer me, does Maroon 5 have a sort of “Mexicans love Morrissey” situation going on in South Korea?
Good movie, by the way. Not the kind of thing that's usually my cup o' joe, but good.
Gregg is serious about wanting to live out of the spotlight, by the way – since 1999, he has only granted two full interviews, one in 2014, and one to Billboard just last year. A solo song called “A Love Like That”, probably an old New Radicals demo, leaked onto the Internet in 2004, but other than that he has never shown the slightest desire to return to music as a performer. It's interesting to compare Gregg to Lee Mavers, the rate's other retro pop genius with brief and bright-burning critical acclaim before they settled into reclusiveness and multiple retirements. One has kept working continuously for twenty years to much success, the other fell off the face of the Earth, but what they have in common is that they crafted one of the most shiningly perfect pop songs ever recorded before the spark was snuffed out with ignominious speed. But what sparks they were – and as with all artists with a brief career, the very briefness of it has only added to their legend. We may wish there was more, but a diamond is all the more precious for its rarity, is it not?
The most recently available photo of Gregg. Let himself go a bit, hasn't he?
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
Come around, we'll kick your asses
Seventeen Days (3): This song tries too hard to be hip and “edgy”. It might have been at least kind of enjoyable, if it hadn’t been on the radio every 5 minutes.
Empty Shoebox (3): Just nonsense.
We've got the music in us
chanex (8): There are so many songs on this list I hate in theory and then have to be honest with myself about their iconic status in my history of listening to music and this might be the archetype.
ModeRed (7): Fun, upbeat, and just a bit like several others in this rate.
Auntie Beryl (8.2): For all that Greg”g” Alexander went on to perform gruesome acts of cruelty upon the public with his stewardship of Ronan Keating’s solo career, it all started out OK. It was always cynical, though – pretty much all the acts named and slated in the “controversial” music biz bit were on the same label, so were presumably in on the drama. However, top tune and all that.
WowWowWowWow (8): Up until the “fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson” part, it could have been a classic singalong hit. But that part left a weird taste in my mouth, then and now. And the fact that Gregg would later go on to be a rent-a-writer for the pop world? I SEE YOU GREGG.
saviodxl (9): It's angsty but actually not really angsty. What's wrong with a photoshoot with Hanson tough?
Ganache (9): Classic song that everybody across the board liked.
yuuurei (8.5): Just a nice tune with fun lyrics. It's good.
berserkboi (9.9): So many great things here but I still can’t give it a total 10 as I am not rooting for it to win, nor do I think it needs the extra nudge to get there! You’ve got such great music in you, Mr. Alexander!!
DominoDancing (10): This was another potential 11 for me. What a great timeless pop song this is (well, unless the last 30 seconds when the name-dropping starts). I would not be sad if this won the rate.
DJHazey (10): This needs to be a male vocalist who bucks the trend and makes the Top 10! Makes me so proud to be a 90s kid because this is just everything.
Sprockrooster (10): Please do not kill this massive track misandryjustice. Imagine this winning and trumping every female vocal in this. Oh wait, this isn't the LAST FM forum.
unnameable (10): I prefer “someday we’ll know” because I adore Danielle Brisebois, but this is an epic song.
CasuallyCrazed (10): The New Radicals brought us so much. This + that amazing Mandy Moore Walk to Remember collab.
CorgiCorgiCorgi (10): This New Radicals album was great and I feel like if it had been released 5 years later it would be a Popjustice essential.
iheartpoptarts (10): One of the most euphoric songs in the rate.
2014 (10): A song that I could listen to on repeat for ages. Always takes me back - crazy!
4Roses (10): If I ever own a convertible this will be the first track I'll blast, it's what she deserves.
Filippa (11): One of my all-time favourite songs! It never fails to put me into good mood and I never get tired of it.
pop3blow2 (11): I thought it was gonna be hard picking my 11 & while there were a handful of solid 10s that were contenders, this was actually a no brainer. I actually think this might be a contender for the best ‘one-hit wonder’ of all time. (That said, I was actually pretty obsessed with this whole album at the time, it really good.). My favorite band of all time is the Manic Street Preachers. When they cam out in 1990, they said their goal was to make one amazing album > sell 10 million copies > & breakup at the height of international super-cool. They, of course, did none of that. Nor did the New Radicals, but in a way they fill that level of ‘purity’ in my brain. I love they had one amazing single > made one fantastic album > & imploded on the verge of international supercool. Gregg Alexander was wise beyond his years. Is this my favorite song in the rate? No, there are a few others I like more. But it deserves to win, so I'm giving it my 11.
Andy French (11): Okay so this song is catchy but also BEAUTIFULLY written and composed, which I genuinely don't think it gets enough credit for; this might sound like a strange comparison but I see it as a companion piece/sequel to Bowie's "Heroes", if only for the scorchingly defiant, apocalyptic, "I don't care if we die, I'm not going down without a fucking FIGHT" vibes it gives off. Gregg Alexander is a genius, and he well and truly snapped with this project.
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he/him
Welp. That's that.
Wonderful write-up for a wonderful song, not that I should be surprised considering @Ironheade's quality in this rate. (My dear Mandy even got a mention. Popjustice.)
There's really probably not a plane of existence where you could convince this might not be the most perfect 'one hit wonder' of all time.
Oh, I did give it my 11, (I'm sure @Ironheade just plugged me into the '10s field' in the write-up.)
Wonderful write-up for a wonderful song, not that I should be surprised considering @Ironheade's quality in this rate. (My dear Mandy even got a mention. Popjustice.)
There's really probably not a plane of existence where you could convince this might not be the most perfect 'one hit wonder' of all time.
Oh, I did give it my 11, (I'm sure @Ironheade just plugged me into the '10s field' in the write-up.)
she/her
He wrote 'Murder on the Dancefloor' - wait, WHAT?
(P.S. I do like some of the Ronan Keating songs)
(P.S. I do like some of the Ronan Keating songs)
he/him
Between learning that Uncle Jesse from Full House sang “Alone” before Heart did and that Danielle from New Radicals was the girl on “Hard Knock Life,” my brain can’t take any new information today.
Also New Radicals made me irrationally mad because I only have two G’s in the way I spell my name, but Gregg has 3. Always trying to one-up people, that guy...
Also New Radicals made me irrationally mad because I only have two G’s in the way I spell my name, but Gregg has 3. Always trying to one-up people, that guy...
For those two Alexander solo albums, Wiki lists Maria Vidal and N'Dea Davenport as backing vocalists.
Small world.
Small world.
For me, this suffered from being released in the days when I used to watch MTV and The Box constantly. You were never more than about 10 minutes away from seeing it.
That, and the fact that many of the songs he's written for other artists have been blatant (and inferior) rehashes, with Ronan Keating's excruciating I Love It When We Do being the worst offender.
That, and the fact that many of the songs he's written for other artists have been blatant (and inferior) rehashes, with Ronan Keating's excruciating I Love It When We Do being the worst offender.
londonrain
Staff member
Such a great song.
I remember Someday We’ll Know getting some international airplay! I don’t think I knew at the time that the band was already over, though...
I remember Someday We’ll Know getting some international airplay! I don’t think I knew at the time that the band was already over, though...
He/Him
Likewise! Got played a fair bit in Mauritius! Who knew it had been PJ Retro eligible all this time!!
she/her
Oh man don't start me on Beck. Possibly the worst support act I've ever seen.
What?? He did??? Must have missed that bit reading the bio on the train!
he/him
And "Mixed Up World" and "I Won't Change You," for the record.
As well as...
As well as...
