Twenty eight years later and 4 Non Blondes are back in the news: what's going on?
The US group's 1993 single What's Up? reached a billion streams on YouTube for the first time in 10 years since it was uploaded on the platform.
The song joins the likes of fellow 1990s anthems November Rain by Guns N' Roses, Whitney Houston's I Will Always You and Zombie by The Cranberries in YouTube's musical billionaires' club.
While singer Linda Perry went on to have a thriving songwriting career, collaborating with Adele and Pink, What's Up? remains her most enduring success.
The track also buried her band, as 4 Non Blondes fell into the "one-hit wonder" trap. They broke up the following year with one album – Bigger, Better, Faster, More! – to their name.
Here are five other fun facts about the song.
1. The title was chosen for clarity
A confusing aspect of What's Up? is the title's words are never heard in the song. Instead, the chorus has Perry bellowing, "Hey, what's going on?"
The reason for the word change was to avoid confusion in record stores with soul singer Marvin Gaye's 1971 hit What's Going On.
2. The band knew it would be a hit
Sometimes, it just comes down to a gut feeling.
4 Non Blondes guitarist Christa Hillhouse recalls how the band reacted when Perry composed the track on the acoustic guitar.
"I remember when she was writing the verses to What's Up?, she knew it so well, she thought she heard it before," Hillhouse told Songfacts.
“I think that's why the song connects with so many people. What she was feeling she was able to translate. If you look at the lyrics, they don't mean anything. It's the way the song makes certain people feel.”
3. Linda Perry heard the song and cried
Perry was devastated by the song’s shiny production.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this and my publicist said to me 'please don't say this' – but I wasn't really a big fan of my band," she told Rolling Stone in 2011.
"I did love What's Up?' but I hated the production. When I heard our record for the first time I cried. It didn't sound like me. … I wanted to say, 'We're a (cool) band. We're not that fluffy polished (music) that you're listening to.'"
4. Other rockers hate the song too...
What's Up? has appeared in numerous "worst song" lists by musicians.
Mogwai guitarist Stuart Braithwaite told The Independent: "This songs makes me feel ... nauseous."
Meanwhile, Dean Ween, frontman of fellow 1990s band Ween, said What's Up? represents the worst aspects of that era's sound. "It's as bad as music gets," he told The AV Club.
“Everything about the song is so awful that if I sat down and tried to write the worst song ever, I couldn't even make it 10 per cent of the reality of how awful that song is."
5. It got the remix treatment
If that's how Ween felt about the original, where would he begin when describing DJ Miko's version?
In 1993, while the song was riding high in the charts worldwide, the Italian producer did a Europop remix of What's Up? that apparently went down a treat on dance floors in Sweden and Finland.
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The biog
Nickname: Mama Nadia to children, staff and parents
Education: Bachelors degree in English Literature with Social work from UAE University
As a child: Kept sweets on the window sill for workers, set aside money to pay for education of needy families
Holidays: Spends most of her days off at Senses often with her family who describe the centre as part of their life too
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
The five pillars of Islam
More from Neighbourhood Watch
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
