“What You Waiting For” by Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani's first single on her own, "What You Waiting For?" throws open Love. Angel. Music. Baby., her 2004 solo debut, and it's a song about not being able to write songs. She and Linda Perry wrote it about Stefani's creative block, her nerves about making the record at all and the label leaning on her; she called it her explanation for doing the album in the first place.

Nellee Hooper produced, Perry played guitars and keyboards, Rusty Anderson added more guitar and Mark "Spike" Stent mixed, and the result is jittery, glittering electropop that also introduces the Harajuku Girls, the four backup dancers who had a big hand in shaping the album. Critics singled it out as a highlight; it topped the chart in Australia, went platinum in the US and picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.