The New Radicals were essentially the vehicle of one man, the singer-songwriter Gregg Alexander, and they burned brightly for a single, joyous moment before he walked away. "You Get What You Give", released in 1998, is an exuberant, defiant pop-rock anthem, and it became a worldwide hit, beloved for its uplift and its closing barrage of celebrity name-checks.
Remarkably, Alexander disbanded the project at the height of its success, preferring to write and produce for other artists, so there was never a real second act. The New Radicals released just one album.
On streaming, "You Get What You Give" sits near 702 million plays, while their next most-streamed track, "Someday We'll Know", trails at around 58 million. That sends the ratio above 12, far past our 5.0 line.
By our measure the New Radicals are a certified one-hit wonder, and a self-made one. Alexander chose to dissolve the band rather than chase the hit, going on to a successful career behind the scenes, which leaves one gloriously optimistic anthem standing, by design, as essentially the project's entire legacy. Few artists have so deliberately chosen to remain a one-hit wonder.