New Radicals



New Radicals were a Too Good to Last One-Hit Wonder American pop-rock band from The Nineties. Their sole permanent member was multi-instrumentalist Gregg Alexander, who wrote and produced all their songs. Their only other constant member was former All in The Family actress Danielle Brisebois, who played percussion (and occasionally, keyboards) and sang backing vocals.

They released one album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, in 1998. A pop-rock album drawing influences from various rock and Funk/Soul acts like Todd Rundgren, Prince and The Rolling Stones, Brainwashed was greeted with critical acclaim. It also provided the band with their only hit single, "You Get What You Give". It's one of those one hit wonders that everybody knows now.

Alexander disbanded the group in mid-1999 out of fatigue with touring and the rock star life, declaring that he had "accomplished all of [his] goals". He returned to his previous job of writing and producing for other musicians.

Tropes:

 * Arc Words: "Two years ago" is mentioned consistently in the songs about breakups. The number 97 pops up every now and then due to the band being formed in that year.
 * I Am the Band
 * Nice Hat: Alexander. He admitted that he always wore one to partially hide his complete lack of enthusiasm during live performances.
 * One-Hit Wonder: To extreme proportions - the band only lasted long enough to release two singles: one ("You Get What You Give") was the hit and the other ("Someday We'll Know") wasn't given a fair shake due to being overshadowed by the band's breakup. Today, most people are only familiar with the former.
 * One-Man Band: Gregg played all the parts on "Technicolor Lover" by himself.
 * One Work Author: Only released one album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
 * Perishing Alt Rock Voice: Gregg had his moments.
 * Scannable Man: Several pictures on the album art have a barcode on Alexander.
 * Take That: Alexander included two verses towards the end of "You Get What You Give", one criticising the FDA, health insurance providers and others, and the other just bashing various celebrities. By his own admission, it was an experiment to see whether the media would focus on the political issues of the first lines or just the celebrity-bashing. Predictably enough, the media focused on the bashing and ignored the rest.