What Ever Happened to Gregg Alexander?

Remember this tune?



Of course you do. "You Get What You Give" was written by the New Radicals' fontman Gregg Alexander.

Alexander and the New Radicals produced a whopping one album. And if you haven't checked it out, you don't know what you're missing. Youtube is your source from some of the other hits on the CD:







So what ever happened to Gregg Alexander? According to Wikipedia:

Since disbanding the group in summer 1999, Alexander has written and produced songs for artists including Ronan Keating, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Enrique Iglesias, Hanson, Geri Halliwell, Melanie C, and fellow ex-New Radical Danielle Brisebois. Most noteworthy was the song "The Game Of Love" by Santana and Michelle Branch, which earned a Grammy in 2003.

All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described him as "the catchiest, smartest professional mainstream pop songwriter of the early 2000s."

Now here is the mystery that is Gregg Alexander:

In 1998, they released Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. It went on to become a minor success in the late nineties mainly due to the smash hit single, "You Get What You Give".

It was not long before Alexander became tired of the constant media attention and exhaustive touring schedule. In July of 1999, "Someday We'll Know" was announced as the band's second single. However, several days later Alexander announced he was disbanding the New Radicals to focus on production work.

He said that "the fatigue of traveling and getting three hours sleep in a different hotel every night to do boring 'hanging and schmoozing' with radio and retail people is definitely not for me". After a big fight with MCA Alexander finally agreed to shoot a video for "Someday We'll Know" but with the band now defunct, the song got little attention and the New Radicals were forever confined to the one-hit wonder hall of fame.

[After the New Radicals], Gregg Alexander wrote and produced "The Game Of Love" by Santana and Michelle Branch as well as four songs on Enrique Iglesias' album 7 under the pseudonym Alex Ander.

He is also believed to be, along with Rick Nowels, The Party People, who produced Justin Guarini's song "Inner Child", which is a rewritten version of "Inner Smile", the song Alexander and Nowels co-wrote for Texas.

It is often said but unconfirmed that his real name is Greg Aiuto, and thus Gregg Alexander itself is an alias.

Any way you slice it, Alexander was, and apparently still is, a unique individual with a talent for writing songs. And although I am sure he is happy living in obscurity writing songs for stars that crave the spotlight, I can't help but think what could have been if Alexander stuck with New Radicals and continued to pump his own music.