October 13, 1992: Linda Perry Says, "Hey, What's Going On?"

October 13, 1992: The band 4 Non Blondes release their album Bigger, Better, Faster, More! It is best known for its lead single, which turns out to be their only hit.

Lead singer and writer Linda Perry said she titled it "What's Up?" because she did not want it confused with Marvin Gaye's song "What’s Going On."

The other members of the band were guitarist Shaunna Hall, bass guitarist Christa Hillhouse, and drummer Wanda Day. Right before the album was released, Hall and Day quit the band, and were replaced by Roger Rocha and Dawn Richardson, respectively. Perry quit the band in 1994, and the band then split up.

While the song wasn't released as a single for a few months, after the election and Inauguration of Bill Clinton as President, it served as a memoir for a generation that grew up under Republican Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush: "Twenty-five years, and my life is still tryin' to get up that great big hill of hope for a destination."

Linda was born on April 15, 1965, + 25 years = 1990, years that meant that her memories, growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts and then San Diego, and her youth in San Francisco, included the latter years of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the decline of American industry, the Iran Hostage Crisis, terrorism, the rise of the environmental movement, the AIDS crisis, 3 hard recessions, and backlashes against the struggles for equality of women and gay people, both of which she was.

Unlike Gaye's What's Going On, the album as a whole is not well remembered, but the single proved to be pretty influential: A 13-year-old girl from Doylestown, Pennsylvania named Alecia Moore probably wouldn't have become the superstar singer Pink without it. Perry also had big hits when Pink recorded her song "Get the Party Started," Christina Aguilera recorded "Beautiful," and Gwen Stefani recorded "What You Waiting For?" Perry also discovered English singer James Blunt.

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October 13, 1992 was a Tuesday. Football was in midweek. The NBA season began 24 days later.

Game 6 was played in the National League Championship Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Atlanta Braves, 13-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. But the Braves won Game 7 the next night, in what is remembered as the Francisco Cabrera Game -- or the Sid Bream Game.

The American League Championship Series was between Games 5 and 6. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics in Game 6.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-3 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-3 in a neutral-site game at Saskatchewan Place (now the SaskTel Centre) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the San Jose Sharks, 2-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.