New Radicals — "You Get What You Give"

Gregg Alexander formed the New Radicals in Los Angeles in 1997 and made exactly one album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (October 20, 1998). Its lead single, "You Get What You Give," released November 3, 1998, climbed to #36 on the Hot 100 and #8 on Modern Rock, and went to #1 in Canada and New Zealand and #5 in the UK—a bucket-hatted burst of piano-pounding optimism at the exact moment radio was drowning in post-grunge gloom.

The closing verse name-dropped Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love, and Marilyn Manson, and Alexander later revealed it was a deliberate test: would the media cover the verse's political lines about health insurance, the FDA, and banks—or the celebrity disses? The press largely chose the disses, exactly as he predicted. Beck said Alexander later apologized to him in person at a supermarket, explaining the line was never personal.

Then came the twist that made the song legend. On July 12, 1999—less than two weeks before the second single, "Someday We'll Know," was due out—Alexander dissolved the band by press release. He'd accomplished his goals, he explained; he hated touring and promotion, and had been wearing the bucket hat onstage partly so people couldn't see his lack of enthusiasm. He wanted to write and produce for others instead. He quit at the absolute top, and the second single arrived to a band that no longer existed.

The afterlife vindicated him: Alexander went on to write and produce hits for others, including Santana and Michelle Branch's "The Game of Love," and Joni Mitchell praised "You Get What You Give" as "a flower of hope" rising out of "McMusic." The New Radicals reunited exactly once—January 20, 2021, playing the song at the Biden inauguration festivities, where it had special meaning as a favorite of the president's late son Beau.