No Doubt decided to work with hip hop production duo the Neptunes as a sort of "cultural collision".[7][8] Lead singer Gwen Stefani wanted to write a high-spirited and celebratory song about the positive things in her life, so they wrote an optimistic upbeat song. The word hella was a slang term used mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of California to mean "very". Having toured in the Bay Area, Stefani borrowed the term to describe her mood.[9] Stefani wanted to use the word dance in a chorus, so she decided to end each line of "Hella Good"'s chorus with the phrase "keep on dancing".[10] The song's funk sound is based on songs such as Queen's 1980 single "Another One Bites the Dust" and The Commodores' 1977 single "Brick House".[11]
About.com ranked the song number one in a list of the top five singles from Stefani's career, with the band as well as solo, reasoning by saying that the song's "bumping contemporary beat pushes along 80's style keyboards making it nearly impossible to keep from moving your body."[17]Blender described it as a "blazing start" to Rock Steady and compared it to the work of pop group Was (Not Was), rapper and producer Timbaland, ska punk band Fishbone, and electro DJ Afrika Bambaataa.[18] The NME also compared the song to Bambaataa's music as well as that of Britney Spears and Duran Duran.[19]PlayLouder called the track outstanding and compared Nellee Hooper's production to the electroclash style of Chicago house DJ Felix da Housecat.[20]
Entertainment Weekly characterized the song as a sequel to Madonna's 1985 single "Into the Groove".[21] The publication listed "Hella Good" seventh on its list of the top singles of 2002.[22] It went on to include the song in its list of the top five No Doubt songs, in which it described the song as "a dance-pop delight irresistible enough to make you forget that ''hella'' is one of history's most irritating slang terms."[16]Stylus Magazine was pleased with the use of overdubbing in the song's "anthemic rock chorus", but referred to its lyrics as stupid.[23]Billboard referred to the group as the B-52's of the 2000s and praised "Hella Good"'s combination of a strong bassline; "fairly aggressive electric guitar accents"; Kraftwerk-style electronics; and Stefani's "loose, playful" vocals.[24] The song was listed at number 26 on the 2002 Pazz & Jop list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by Robert Christgau.[25]
On the UK Singles chart, "Hella Good" debuted at number 12 but was unable to reach a higher position.[32] The single peaked at number eight on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart in June 2002 and remained on the chart for three months.[33] It was listed at number 65 on the Australian year-end chart for 2002,[34] and was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association.[35] In New Zealand, it peaked at number 17 and spent 15 weeks on the chart.[36]
Music video
Stefani riding a waterjet scene from the music video.
The black-and-whitemusic video was directed by Mark Romanek. Not following any plot, the video depicts the band as a group of punk rockerssquatting in an abandoned ship while the rest are chasing Stefani throughout the ship. During the course of the video, the band members perform the song, using bodyboards to float electronic equipment, and they and their friends explore and dance throughout the ship. There are also sequences of people riding on personal water crafts, Stefani performing on a coiled rope, people playing Jet Set Radio Future, and Stefani broadcasting on a pirate radio station.[9]
Romanek came up with the video's concept it and e-mailed it to the band. He based it on a black-and-white Italian Vogue fashion shoot from the mid-1990s which featured models on waverunners. The video was then filmed over three days in March 2002 in Long Beach, California. The scenes inside the ship were filmed from man-made sets at South Bay Studios.[9]
The music video was moderately successful. Following a premiere on an episode of MTV's Making the Video, it reached number four on the network's video countdown Total Request Live.[37] The video debuted on MuchMusic's Countdown in April 2002 and peaked at number six, spending over four months on the program.[38] At the 2003 Music Video Production Association Awards, production designer Laura Fox won the Universal Studios Production Services Award for Best Art Direction for her work on this video.[39]
Track listings
Australasian, Japanese & European CD maxi-single[40][41]
^Browne, David (December 10, 2001). "Rock Steady Review". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
^Browne, David (December 20–27, 2002). "The best and worst". Entertainment Weekly. No. 687/688. p. 126.
^Hella Good (Japanese CD single liner notes). No Doubt. Interscope Records. 2002. UICS-5020.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Hella Good (UK CD single liner notes). No Doubt. Interscope Records. 2002. 497736-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Hella Good (UK 12-inch single sleeve). No Doubt. Interscope Records. 2002. 497 736-1.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Hella Good (UK cassette single sleeve). No Doubt. Interscope Records. 2002. 497736-4.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Hella Good (European CD single liner notes). No Doubt. Interscope Records. 2002. 4977202.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
