Culture
New Radicals Reunite to Play ‘You Get What You Give’ at Joe Biden’s Inauguration
By: Emily Votaw
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (NPR) — In 1999, alternative rock group New Radicals broke up after the massive success of their hit “You Get What You Give,” frontman Gregg Alexander famously sickened by the excessive promotional interviews and touring the band’s label expected of them.
The band’s single release, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too has since developed a considerable following, although the band didn’t stay together long enough to even release the album’s second single, “Someday We’ll Know.”
Fast forward some 21 years, and the band reunited to play their hit single for President Joe Biden and Vide President Kamala Harris’ virtual “Parade Across America” Tuesday, January 20.
In his 2017 autobiography, Promise Me, Dad, President Biden wrote that “You Get What You Give” served as his son Beau Biden’s “theme song” as he battled the brain cancer that ended his life in 2015.
“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,” President Biden wrote. “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.'”
Alexander dedicated the performance to Beau Biden and the new administration.
“When we heard that ‘You Get What You Give’ was a Biden family anthem, we pledged that if Joe won, we’d get together and play our little song,” said Alexander in a pre-taped introduction. “Both in memory and in honor of our new president’s patriot son Beau, and also with the prayer of Joe being able to bring our country together again.”