“I went to the label and said, ‘This song sucks. This is not the song I wrote.’ They said it sounded fine. I did not agree”: When a songwriter went to war with her producer and record company over the track that became a ’90s anthem

Linda Perry.

There is an innate understanding among songwriters that it pays to be extremely wary of any idea that springs too easily to mind. The main concern is that the idea may already exist – that your subconscious has inadvertently summoned up something you have already heard.

That was allegedly the thought crossing the mind of singer-songwriter Linda Perry back in 1992 when she sat down and wrote What’s Up? – an anthemic, cathartic and insanely catchy rock-pop classic.