Alternative rock outfit New Radicals had a brief career during the 1990s, which saw the release of their one-hit wonder “You Get What You Give.” The band are now set to reunite for the first time in over two decades during Joe Biden’s virtual inauguration parade “Parade Across America,” on January 20.
While the New Radicals only lasted from 1997 to 1999, their 1998 hit “You Get What You Give” is special to the Biden family, as it was their theme for the late Beau Biden, who passed away in 2015 after a battle with cancer. Joe Biden discussed the importance this song had for his late son in his 2017 autobiography Promise Me, Dad.
“During breakfast, Beau would often make me listen to what I thought was his theme song, ‘You Get What You Give’ by the New Radicals,” Biden wrote in the book. “Even though Beau never stopped fighting and his will to live was stronger than most – I think he knew that this day might come. The words to the song are: This whole damn world can fall apart. You’ll be ok, follow your heart.”
New Radicals released only one studio album, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too, which eviscerated corporate American culture while taking influence from 1970s rock and soul music. The group was primarily centered around Gregg Alexander, who was the only member to perform on the album’s songs alongside several studio musicians. While the band broke up in 1999, Alexander and the group’s only other member Danielle Brisebois continued working together, garnering an Academy Award for Best Original Song nomination in 2015 for their song “Lost Stars” from the film Begin Again.
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