Just for kicks I went over to Hootie and the Blowfish’s website ( www.hootie.com ) to see what was happening. Surprisingly I found they’ve put out a greatest hits album recently (hasn’t everyone?), a third of which of which contains such radio friendly hits that appeared on their breakthrough album everyone owns, or did own during the Summer of 1994.
Song List
1. Hold My Hand (Cracked Rear View)
2. Only Wanna Be With You (CRV)
3. Time (CRV)
4. Let Her Cry (CRV)
5. Not Even The Trees (CRV)
6. Old Man & Me (When I Get To Heaven)
7. Hey Hey What Can I Do (Led Zeppelin cover)
8. Tucker’s Town
9. I Go Blind
10. Sad Caper
11. Be The One
12. Use Me
13. I Will Wait
14. Innocence
15. Space
16. Only Lonely
17. Goodbye Girl
It was radio stations like Y-107 that killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. By playing back to back Hootie songs everyone soon found that they didn’t necessarily have to buy another Hootie album. It was already on their radio. Top 40 radio seems to do that at times. Ruins good songs. Wonderwall comes to mind. Train’s Meet Virginia.
Hootie was the type of thing that VH1 loved. What did it in for me was that music video of them playing golf. Golf? What does golf have to do radio friendly songs?
It’s not that they’re a poor sounding band. It’s that their 15 minutes of fame was already up by the time they released their sophomore album, Fairweather Johnson, which saw only fairweather fans buying that album. Do you own it? I didn’t think so.
It’s a poorly named band. Imagine if you will wearing a Hootie t-shirt out to the mall or Walmart. Then being made fun of because of it. Hootie? Someone really should rename the band. Maybe it was the band’s name that got people initually interested. Maybe it was the band’s name that repelled people.
Looking through their discography I found that they have a whole album of cover songs. “Scattered, Smothered and Covered.” Did they have to work for this one? Probably not.