Song vs. song! 90s one hit wonders! Bittersweet Symphony vs. You Get What You Give

[Entre_Perpetuo]

I think these songs occupy a similar kind of space in radio play and overall pop culture, but which do you prefer? The pretty groove where some dude growls about how life is long and meaningless, or the amped up pop tune about perseverance and something about Beck, Hanson, and Marylin Manson's mansions.

[IbanezJem]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

[J2112YYZ]

I don't seem to recall anything about New Radicals or that song.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

 

Are they really not one hit wonders? Like they had other big charting songs? I'm sure they had better songs, but did they have other super popular songs?

[Entre_Perpetuo]

I don't seem to recall anything about New Radicals or that song.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj7qrCC9__zAhVZbs0KHUztBwEQyCl6BAgQEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDL7-CKirWZE&usg=AOvVaw3I5sH3Ko4ravgBHE322shb

[IbanezJem]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

 

Are they really not one hit wonders? Like they had other big charting songs? I'm sure they had better songs, but did they have other super popular songs?

4 UK Top 10s, 7 UK Top 40s - I can`t say that I know what happened abroad though.

[J2112YYZ]

I think Bittersweet Symphony was it for them here in the US. I don't remember them being popular for too long.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

 

Are they really not one hit wonders? Like they had other big charting songs? I'm sure they had better songs, but did they have other super popular songs?

4 UK Top 10s, 7 UK Top 40s - I can`t say that I know what happened abroad though.

 

Oh dang. In the US I don't think they had anything other than Bittersweet Symphony. Let me check wikipedia...

 

So I see you're right about them being big in the UK. Tons of successful charting singles, easily breaking the one hit wonder accusation for that region... but in the US I could only find two other songs that charted on any chart: Lucky Man peaked at #14 on the Adult Alternative chart and #16 on Alternative Airplay, and Slide Away hit #1 on the Indie Rock charts. Ironically, both of those songs share names with songs I know from other bands: ELP's Lucky Man and Oasis' Slide Away.

[invisible airwave]

Both great but YGWYG was my favorite song in senior year of high school and a great album. The last album I bought on cassette before I went exclusively CD in early December 1998. Urban Hymns took me a long time to get into but it's aged well. Wasn't easy for 17 year old me to get into like Third Eye Blind. Edited November 5, 2021 by invisible airwave

[invisible airwave]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

 

Lucky Man got played quite a bit on Satellite radio because they weren't getting BSS royalties after that Rolling Stones lawsuit.

[IbanezJem]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

 

Are they really not one hit wonders? Like they had other big charting songs? I'm sure they had better songs, but did they have other super popular songs?

4 UK Top 10s, 7 UK Top 40s - I can`t say that I know what happened abroad though.

 

Oh dang. In the US I don't think they had anything other than Bittersweet Symphony. Let me check wikipedia...

 

So I see you're right about them being big in the UK. Tons of successful charting singles, easily breaking the one hit wonder accusation for that region... but in the US I could only find two other songs that charted on any chart: Lucky Man peaked at #14 on the Adult Alternative chart and #16 on Alternative Airplay, and Slide Away hit #1 on the Indie Rock charts. Ironically, both of those songs share names with songs I know from other bands: ELP's Lucky Man and Oasis' Slide Away.

I'm glad you've reminded me of their work. Their early records are way above the standard of Britpop that dominated the media.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

 

Are they really not one hit wonders? Like they had other big charting songs? I'm sure they had better songs, but did they have other super popular songs?

4 UK Top 10s, 7 UK Top 40s - I can`t say that I know what happened abroad though.

 

Oh dang. In the US I don't think they had anything other than Bittersweet Symphony. Let me check wikipedia...

 

So I see you're right about them being big in the UK. Tons of successful charting singles, easily breaking the one hit wonder accusation for that region... but in the US I could only find two other songs that charted on any chart: Lucky Man peaked at #14 on the Adult Alternative chart and #16 on Alternative Airplay, and Slide Away hit #1 on the Indie Rock charts. Ironically, both of those songs share names with songs I know from other bands: ELP's Lucky Man and Oasis' Slide Away.

I'm glad you've reminded me of their work. Their early records are way above the standard of Britpop that dominated the media.

 

I guess I should check them out. I love Oasis.

[J2112YYZ]

I don't seem to recall anything about New Radicals or that song.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj7qrCC9__zAhVZbs0KHUztBwEQyCl6BAgQEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDL7-CKirWZE&usg=AOvVaw3I5sH3Ko4ravgBHE322shb

 

I don't know that song at all. Which is strange because it came out at a time where I was still paying attention to modern hits.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

I don't seem to recall anything about New Radicals or that song.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj7qrCC9__zAhVZbs0KHUztBwEQyCl6BAgQEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDL7-CKirWZE&usg=AOvVaw3I5sH3Ko4ravgBHE322shb

 

I don't know that song at all. Which is strange because it came out at a time where I was still paying attention to modern hits.

 

Hm, that is strange. I suppose I first heard it at the end of a kids movie called Surf’s Up, which came out some years later.

[zepphead]

Never heard of New Radicals

[Lurkst]

Never heard of New Radicals

 

They were basically one guy. Wrote a few hits for other people then fancied trying it himself. Didn't last long.

 

YGWYG was a good radio hit back in the day though.

 

[Lurkst]

The Verve were a bit more than one-hit wonders - I saw them at the Brixton Academy in the mid 90s and The Drugs Don`t Work, Lucky Man, Sonnet, History... all much better than Bitter Sweet Symphony :yes:

 

Lucky Man got played quite a bit on Satellite radio because they weren't getting BSS royalties after that Rolling Stones lawsuit.

 

Yes, because the Stones got those royalties does that make the Verve a zero hit wonder in the US? :D

 

You can appreciate why they lost that lawsuit though...

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Lurkst

[Stormtron]

You Get What You Give was one of the most annoying songs of the 90s. Hate that shit! Sure The Verve song ripped off the Stones, but then Three 6 Mafia sampled that song in Triple 6 Clubhouse and that's a certified phonk classic.

[Nova Carmina]

Bittersweet Symphony, easily. The other one always sounded like someone trying too hard.

[Timbale]

I don't have much nostalgia for this era of popular music...in the decades I've been alive, the 90's are last on the list for music I enjoy...

 

Having said that, I picked the New Radicals song. I think Bittersweet Symphony is kind of a cool thing, using that sample that way, but the other song is, in my view, actually well written. It is SO 90s, and it's so full of a kind of attitude/bravado that I find pretty irksome/lame... but I do think if you took that song and re-recorded it now and lost all those 90s trappings, you'd have a good song - whereas the Verve song just is what it is - someone singing over a loop.

 

I can't be arsed to search for it...but I remember that Joni Mitchell had said that she loved You Get What You Give...

[Timbale]

Also...people in this thread talking about how they've never even heard of the New Radicals' song reminded me of this episode of the podcast Reply All :

 

https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2h8bx

 

This is, without overstating, the single greatest episode of any podcast I've ever heard...about someone who remembers a song from the 90s that no one else seems to have any recollection of at all. It is SO GOOD.

[blueschica]

I don't seem to recall anything about New Radicals or that song.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj7qrCC9__zAhVZbs0KHUztBwEQyCl6BAgQEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDL7-CKirWZE&usg=AOvVaw3I5sH3Ko4ravgBHE322shb

 

I don't know that song at all. Which is strange because it came out at a time where I was still paying attention to modern hits.

 

Hm, that is strange. I suppose I first heard it at the end of a kids movie called Surf’s Up, which came out some years later.

 

I first heard it in one of the Flintstones movies, so there's that . . .

[blueschica]

I don't seem to recall anything about New Radicals or that song.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj7qrCC9__zAhVZbs0KHUztBwEQyCl6BAgQEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDL7-CKirWZE&usg=AOvVaw3I5sH3Ko4ravgBHE322shb

 

I don't know that song at all. Which is strange because it came out at a time where I was still paying attention to modern hits.

 

Hm, that is strange. I suppose I first heard it at the end of a kids movie called Surf’s Up, which came out some years later.

 

I first heard it in one of the Flintstones movies, so there's that . . .

 

In spite of that, I voted for the New Radicals. I really like the Melodic tones and laid-back ness of that song. I have heard Bittersweet Symphony a lot but I always thought it was Coldplay! :lol: I was more into some grunge bands I guess at the time. My 90's music education is lacking.

Edited November 5, 2021 by blueschica

[Fridge]

Easily Bittersweet Symphony, though they have far better songs....they actually got sued by the Rolling Stones because they used the same string arrangement as The Last Time.