New Radicals have released their first original song in nearly three decades, "One Night Only (Break Loose Break Free!)," Pitchfork reported. Frontman Gregg Alexander wrote the track for the soundtrack to "One Night Only," a romantic comedy starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner that arrives in theaters this week.
The rock band broke up in 1999, a year after the breakout success of "You Get What You Give" and the release of their debut album, "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too." That song, and the band's abrupt exit from the spotlight soon after, cemented New Radicals as one of the era's defining one-hit wonders.
Alexander didn't disappear from music after the breakup; he moved into songwriting and production, eventually writing Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder on the Dancefloor" and Adam Levine's Oscar-nominated "Lost Stars." Both songs found new audiences decades after New Radicals' own run ended, far outlasting the band's brief run in the spotlight.
Alexander also wrote "Game of Love," the Santana and Michelle Branch collaboration, which Branch recently rerecorded together with New Radicals themselves, drawing a direct line between his solo songwriting career and the band's own catalog nearly 30 years later.
New Radicals have made occasional returns to the stage in recent years without releasing new original material until now: the band reunited to perform at President Biden's 2021 inauguration, then regrouped again in 2024 to record their own version of "Murder on the Dancefloor," dedicating it to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who had used the song as walk-on music at campaign rallies.
The facts
- New Radicals released their first original song in nearly three decades
- Gregg Alexander wrote it for the rom com One Night Only
- The band broke up in 1999, a year after You Get What You Give
- Alexander later wrote Murder on the Dancefloor and Lost Stars
- The band reunited to play Biden's 2021 inauguration
- They regrouped in 2024 to record their own Murder on the Dancefloor
- Alexander also wrote "Game of Love," which Michelle Branch recently rerecorded with New Radicals themselves
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