4 Non Blondes were formed in San Francisco in 1989 by Linda Perry, already celebrated in the Bay City's blues clubs for her Janis Joplin-style roar, for her doleful acoustic guitar and her open homosexuality In 1990 the band had a local hit with Mr President, but it was the album Bigger Better Faster More (Interscope, 1992) that climbed the charts. The material is eclectic and not always original, often recalling an amateurish Jefferson Starship, nervous when incorporating funk (Calling All The People) or rockabilly (Old Mr Heffer). Perry's vision was best displayed in the cogent ballad What's Going On (their hit) and in the blues Train. Perry's tormented soul agonized in Drifting and Spaceman. Her first solo album, In Flight (Interscope, 199), was a slick production aiming at the charts (In My Dreams, Knock Me Out).
