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Okay, I didn’t always have a soft spot for No Doubt.
It really stemmed from Just a Girl. This was probably in the early 2010’s when it was all rekindled. It had an incredible 90’s sound, as I heard it on some radio station. I actually wasn’t sure which band it was. I just knew it was a huge sound of the 90s that I previously pushed under the rug. But as I kept opening doors to bands and one hit wonders that were more 90’s pop than what I usually listened to, it naturally led to the voice of Gwen. I wanted more of that sound.
I kind of remember hearing Don’t Speak in the 90s, but the large part of the first 10 years post-2000 I didn’t pay them much attention.
There was a King of the Hill episode I saw when Bobby goes to the Arlen High School Prom and No Doubt is the band playing. I thought that was kind of neat, but I admittedly didn’t know much about them, let alone who the lead singer was. All I knew is they made a few good hits.
Then around the summer of 2012 or later in the fall is when I first heard Simple Kind of Life. What a solid, beautiful and catchy song. Every time I hear it I think of the fall months and the beginning of winter, when the temps start to give a chill. Like a New York vibe when you see a scene of pigeons standing in a row on the roof of a very tall building- and red-tinted leaves are falling from trees and you look up to an overcast sky.
I can now say that No Doubt is one of my 10 favorite bands. Here’s a recent live video from 2012 that totally did it for me. An intimate version of Simple Kind of Life, and it all comes full circle for Gwen Stefani as she can’t help but grin from the lines “I always thought, I’d be a mom“. You know, she wasn’t a mom for 6 years after that song was released…
A month or two before this article was written I first felt the greatness of Spiderwebs. Sure, you have the big No Doubt hits that me and you love, but Spiderwebs is freaking incredible! There’s a video around the internet of No Doubt rehearsing for the 1997 Grammy Awards, and it’s a very clear/ unedited picture that shows the band practicing Spiderwebs to mostly an arena of empty seats. They all looked so young. Here’s the video:
Although she married the lead singer of a very mainstream and mediocre band, she came out with two children and now a third’s on the way. It’s such a far step from her crazy days in the mid-90s when no one heard Don’t Speak until Gwen wrote its brilliance after ending the relationship she had with their bass player.
I’m still trying to find their good songs, ones I can listen to many times over. If you know any I didn’t list here you can always jot them down in the comment section.
An interesting and unique group we had, 90’s childs.