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You Get What You Give

"You Get What You Give"
New Radicals YGWYG Single.jpg
Single by New Radicals
from the album Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
B-side "To Think I Thought"
Released November 10, 1998
Format CD single, 12" single
Recorded 1997-98
Genre
Length 5:00
Label MCA Records
Writer(s) Gregg Alexander, Rick Nowels
Producer(s) Gregg Alexander
New Radicals singles chronology
"You Get What You Give"
(1998)
"Someday We'll Know"
(1999)

"You Get What You Give" is a 1998 song by the New Radicals. It was an international hit, the first and most successful single from their album Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. It reached number 30 on Billboard Hot 100 Airplay in January 1999, number 36 on the overall Hot 100 and number eight on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. It reached number five in the United Kingdom and number one in Canada and New Zealand.

Much of the media attention "You Get What You Give" received centered on the closing lyrics:

According to Alexander, he had written this section for the song as a test: to see whether the media would focus on the important political issues of the first few lines, or the petty celebrity-. As suspected, a considerable amount of press began to appear about the name-dropping, and the other political issues were largely ignored.

Marilyn Manson commented that he was "not mad he said he'd kick my ass, I just don't want to be used in the same sentence as Courtney Love.... I'll crack his [Alexander's] skull open if I see him." Beck reported that Alexander personally apologized for the line when they met each other by chance in a supermarket, claiming that it was never meant to be personal. Alexander collaborated with Hanson, whose drummer, Zac Hanson, called him "a bit of a character, but a cool guy."

Although the lines were used for the band's Top of the Pops appearance, it was truncated at "kick you".

In a Time Magazine interview, U2 lead guitarist The Edge is quoted saying "You Get What You Give" is the song he is "most jealous of. I really would love to have written that."Billboard gave a mixed review, saying that it was a "chugging, Wham!-style pop song with slightly cheesy lyrics" but that the ending lyrics were "interesting".

The song was listed No. 440 on Blender's list of The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.


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