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Here is a timeline of Hootie & The Blowfish's career
to date.
Information gotten from Rock
On The Net
Which one is Hootie? Smack! None of the four members of Hootie & The
Blowfish is known as "Hootie" - and we should all stop asking. The
band members are: Dean Felber (bass and background vocals), Jim 'Soni'
Sonefeld (drums, percussion, piano
& background vocals), Mark Bryan (guitar, mandolin, piano and background
vocals), and the guy most often called "Hootie," Darius Rucker (lead
vocals and guitar). The band is actually named after 2 guys Darius knew while
attending the University of South Carolina. One guy had big eyes like an
owl, so they called him "Hootie." The other guy had rather
large puffy cheeks, so they called him "The Blowfish." The
rest as they say, is history. For a band that has been together almost
two decades, it's hard to believe they became so popular, so quick, and so
disliked in the same amount of time. The band got together at the University
of South Carolina in 1985. Bryan and Rucker originally paired up as a duo in
college under the name The Wolf Brothers playing cover tunes. When Felber
joined the duo, they renamed themselves Hootie & The Blowfish. After
graduation, the band began hitting the club circuit and former classmate,
Sonefeld, joined on as their drummer. The band had some minor success with
independent labels and releases but started the road toward super-stardom when
they signed with Atlantic Records in 1993.
The band's first LP, Cracked
Rear View, was released.
Cracked
Rear View was certified gold.
#
3 Singles Artist of the Year
Throughout 1995, tracks from their debut LP
dominated the pop charts and radio airwaves and the band's first four singles
were all Top 5 hits: "Hold My Hand," "Let
Her Cry," Only Wanna Be With
You," and "Time."
The LP eventually hit the #1 position and went on to sell over 16 million
copies in the U.S. As the band's popularity progressed during the course of
the year, so did the criticism's of the band's redundant sound, simplistic
videos, and radio saturation. Yet, for every criticism and comment, more LPs
sold and Hootie & The Blowfish became one of the most successful acts of
the year.
Cracked
Rear View was certified platinum
Cracked
Rear View was certified 2x
platinum.
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top 40 with "Let
Her Cry."
Cracked
Rear View was certified 4x
platinum.
The band hit the Top
10 with "Let
Her Cry."
Cracked
Rear View topped the Billboard Pop
Albums chart for 8 weeks.
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top 40 with "Only
Wanna Be With You."
Cracked
Rear View was certified 6x
platinum.
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top
10 with "Only
Wanna Be With You."
Hootie & The Blowfish won a MTV
Video Music Award for Best New
Artist and were also nominated for Viewer's Choice ("Hold My Hand").
Cracked
Rear View was certified 10x
platinum.
Cracked
Rear View was certified 11x
platinum
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top 40 with "Time."
Hootie & The Blowfish topped the Billboard
Year-End Chart-Toppers as the
Top Billboard 200 Album Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Billboard 200
Album Artist - Duo/Group, and Top Hot Adult Contemporary Artist.
Cracked
Rear View was the biggest selling
LP of the year with sales topping 7 million during 1995.
#
3 Singles Artist of the Year (# 1 Group/Duo of
the Year)
Hootie & The Blowfish kicked off the year with an American
Music Award for Favorite
Pop/Rock New Artist and were also nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock
Band/Duo/Group, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Artist of the
Year, and Favorite Pop/Rock Album.
Cracked
Rear View was certified 12x
platinum.
The band hit the Top
10 with "Time."
Hootie & The Blowfish won 2 Grammy
Awards for Best
New Artist and Best
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
("Let
Her Cry").
Cracked
Rear View was certified 13x
platinum.
The band's second LP, Fairweather
Johnson, was released and became
the group's second #1 LP. As expected, the heavy radio play of the band's
previous LP had taken its toll on radio listeners, and the second LP was less
successful. Only one track managed to crack the Top 10 pop charts: "Old
Man & Me (When I Get To Heaven)"
(which hit the Top 40 in April) and additional Top 40 hits included "Sad
Caper" and "Tucker's
Town." The LP sold over 3 million
copies in the U.S. and interest in the band continued with the track "I
Go Blind" from the TV show Friends
soundtrack grew in popularity over a year after it was released.
The band hit the Top
10 with "Old
Man & Me (When I Get To Heaven)."
Fairweather
Johnson topped the Billboard Top
200 Albums chart for 2 weeks.
Cracked
Rear View was certified 14x
platinum and Fairweather
Johnson was certified 2x platinum.
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top 40 with "Tucker's
Town."
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top
10 with "Tucker's
Town."
The band were nominated for a MTV
Video Music Award for Best
Group Video ("Only
Wanna Be With You").
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top 40 with "Sad
Caper."
Hootie & The Blowfish hit the Top 40 with "I
Go Blind" from the TV show Friends
soundtrack.
#
150 Singles Artist of the Year
Cracked
Rear View was certified 15x
platinum.
The band won an American
Music Award for Favorite
Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group.
Out in Charleston, South Carolina, a man reported that he was
"beaten-up" by Hootie & The Blowfish singer, Darius Rucker. Both
men claim they were breaking up an altercation. No one was seriously hurt.
Hootie & The Blowfish settled a $150 million lawsuit by a music promoter
who claimed that he "discovered" the band, signed a contract with
the band for 3 years (beginning in 1991), and then was abandoned. The final
terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but lawyers representing the
interest of the band stated it was cheaper to settle than to go to trial. The
band's manager also told Billboard that settling the suit was not an
admission of guilt and was only done for financial reasons.
#
62 Singles Artist of the Year
The 3rd Hootie & The Blowfish LP, Musical
Chairs, was released with the
first Top 40 single, "I
Will Wait."
Also a routine flight to Los Angeles with Hootie & The Blowfish on board
had to land in Denver after a drunk fan approached the band with a book of
poetry looking for autographs and a record deal, and later attacked their
bodyguard and flight attendants. Sonefeld said, "he got pretty unruly and
then he went out of control" and Rucker, who slept through the incident,
told reporters, "they were taking somebody out... I went back to sleep...
I just really wasn't worried about it."
Fairweather
Johnson was certified 3x platinum.
Musical
Chairs was certified platinum.
The band hit the Top
10 with "I
Will Wait."
#
103 Singles Artist of the Year
A second hit from the LP, Musical
Chairs, "Only
Lonely" cracked the Top 40 and
appeared on the soundtrack for Message
In A Bottle (although the song was
originally meant for the film, You Got Mail).
Cracked
Rear View was certified 16x
platinum.
#
184 Singles Artist of the Year
Guitarist, Mark Bryan released a solo LP, 30
On The Rail.
Hootie & The Blowfish released Scattered
Smothered & Covered - a
colletion of rare tracks - and began a small tour during the month.
Hootie & The Blowfish ended the month and year by hitting the Top 40 with
"Use
Me."
#
163 Singles Artist of the Year
Rucker released his solo LP - Back
To Then.
Rucker could be heard with the track "It's All Right To Cry" on the
compilation For
The Kids.
Hootie & The Blowfish released Hootie
& The Blowfish.
Hootie & The Blowfish left their label, Atlantic Records.
Hootie & The Blowish released a hits LP, The
Best Of Hootie & The Blowfish 1993-2003.
# 61 on the Top
Pop Artists of the Past 25 Years
chart.
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