Hootie & The Blowfish: What happened to the band behind 'Hold My Hand', 'Only Wanna Be with You & 'Let Her Cry'?
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They were considered the antidote or alternative to well…alternative and grunge. By the mid 90’s people were growing tired of the dark and morose music that had dominated radio and mtv since 1991. All of a sudden here comes this band Hottie and the Blowfish with Upbeat music that spoke to middle america.. Their debut record would go on to become one of the most successful records of all time. But the band owed a lot of their commercial success to a punk group who had a truly horrific end and they just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. Before Nickelback became the punching bag of the 2000’s, Hootie were the punching bag for critics and music nerds of the 90’s. Today, lets talk about whatever happened to hootie and the blowfish.
The band’s career was about to change come September. David Letterman’s late night show in it’s second season at CBS was one of the most coveted spots an up and coming band could land. Labels fought over getting that spot. One day Dave was driving home from work and heard one of the local stations playing Hold My Hand. Loving what he heard, letterman called up his talent booker and asked for them to book hootie and the blowfish. The band appeared on Letterman on September 2, 1994 and performed Hold my Hand. The effect was almost immediate. The single shot up the singles charts where it would peak at number 7. The album meanwhile saw it’s sales double and it entered the top 100 chartseen it was in the top 50. Couple this with another big appearance on Jay Leno’s tonight show by teh end of the year and there was no stopping the album.. 1995 would be the year of Hootie and the Blowfish. A few months into the year the album went gold moving hlaf a million copies and by May cracked rear view topped the album charts. A few months later the album was selling a whopping million albums per month and they started headlining bigger venues. the band also had three singles on the charts at the same time including “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You.” Let Her Cry.’ The song has been often misinterpreted. Most people assumed the The song is about a man dealing with an alcoholic ex-wife, but Rucker would admit he wrote the song with the genders reversed. He was the one who was the drunk, while his girlfriend was trying to keep their relationship going.
Meanwhile, Only Wanna Be With You would go on to become one of the band’s biggest hits and the video would feature a whose who of the sports world, both in broadcasting and the athletes themselves. The brainchild of Tim Sommer and Darius Rucker, Rucker would admit it was his way of meeting his sports idols. .Rucker was a huge Dolphins fan and named his daughter after the Dan Marino quarterback. ESPN was relatively new at the time and if you guys like sports stories I’ve done a whole video around this time period when the Jock Jams albums started coming out. The link is down below.
Cracked Rear View would stay on the charts for over 2.5 years. Darius would tell the new york times “We had just gone through three or four years of record sales not being that good, and grunge being the big thing on the radio,” he continued. “And then all of a sudden we’re saying, ‘Hold my hand.’ You know, these great little hooks that were undeniable, and people wanted to hear that. They wanted to hear it again and again.”
Another thing overlooked in the band’s success was the impact of VH1. VH1 by the mid 90’s was playing more older and established acts, but they took Hootie under their wing. VH1 was also instrumental in breaking sheryl crow and counting crows. Yes, MTV also played them, but it was VH1 who really started playing them first out of the two networks. By the end of 95 Hootie was getting significant airplay on both networks at the same time.
.The band were so big, they were even referenced on the second season of “Friends,” the episode where Ross gets Hootie tickets for his birthday; while another NBC show “Saturday Night Live” referred to Rucker as the leader of a frat nation. The band took home two Grammys in 1996. Cracked Rear View would be the fastest selling debut record in history at the time.