The lead single from Gwen’s debut solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., the track is an aggressive statement of intent, designed to obliterate the writer’s block she was experiencing at the time.

The music video borrows heavily from Japanese culture, notably the “Harajuku Girls,” a group of backup dancers that perpetuated a style, and entranced Gwen. She was ultimately accused of racism because of her portrayal of the culture, but said in 2014:

For me, everything that I did with the Harajuku Girls was just a pure compliment and being a fan. You can’t be a fan of somebody else? Or another culture? Of course you can. Of course you can celebrate other cultures. That’s what Japanese culture and American culture have done.

The storyline of the video pays homage to the Lewis Carroll classic, Alice in Wonderland, and Gwen is seen in several costumes inspired by the fantasy story. There were four versions of the video created, and an MTV’s Making The Video episode was filmed for the track.

The track is a writing collaboration between Gwen and Linda Perry, and they’d been placed under a “5 day time constraint” by Gwen’s label.

The track was a major hit for Stefani, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Charts, although it only made number 47 on the US Billboard Charts. It was certified double platinum in Australia, and made the top 10 in 15 separate countries.