Music
Gregg Alexander
born 1970
· singer, songwriter, record producer
Grosse Pointe–born leader of the New Radicals, whose 1998 hit “You Get What You Give” made him famous before he turned to writing hits for others.
- Born
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
age 56- Birth name
- Gregory Aiuto
- Detroit years
- 1970–late 1980s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Gregory Aiuto was born in Grosse Pointe and raised in a strict Jehovah's Witness household, and he left home as a teenager to pursue music. At 19 he released his debut album under the title Michigan Rain (1989), which went unnoticed, as did Intoxifornication (1992) on Epic, largely a reissue of those songs. In 1997 he formed the New Radicals; their only album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (1998), produced the worldwide hit “You Get What You Give.” He dissolved the band soon after and became a songwriter and producer for others, writing hits for Ronan Keating, Texas and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, including “Murder on the Dancefloor,” and winning a Grammy for Santana's “The Game of Love” (2002). His song “Lost Stars” from the film Begin Again earned an Academy Award nomination in 2015.
Highlights
- “You Get What You Give” (1998) with the New Radicals
- Debut album Michigan Rain (1989)
- Grammy for co-writing Santana's “The Game of Love”
- Oscar nomination for “Lost Stars” (Begin Again)
- Co-wrote Sophie Ellis-Bextor's “Murder on the Dancefloor”