Hootie & The Blowfish – Biography, Songs, Albums, Discography & Facts

Hootie Biography

Hootie & The Blowfish is an American rock band that was established in 1986 at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Darius Rucker (vocals, guitar), Mark Bryan (guitar, vocals), Dean Felber (bass, keyboards), and Jim Sonefeld (drums) make up the band. “Cracked Rear View” (1994), “Fairweather Johnson” (1996), “Musical Chairs” (1998), “Hootie & The Blowfish” (2003), and “Looking for Lucky” (2004) are the band’s five albums. “Cracked Rear View,” their debut album, is presently the 15th best-selling album of all time in the United States, and was the best-selling debut album for several years.

Hootie & the Blowfish had won two Grammy Awards, had sixteen singles on the Billboard singles lists, and had released six studio albums as of 2019. Cracked Rear View (1994), the band’s debut album, is the 19th best-selling album of all time in the United States and has been certified platinum 21 times. “Hold My Hand” (1994), “Let Her Cry” (1994), and “Only Wanna Be with You” (1994) are the band’s three Top 10 hits (1995). The band is also well-known in Canada, where they have three number-one singles.

When they were freshman at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, the quartet met.

Bryan was astonished by Rucker’s vocal skills when he heard him singing in the showers of the hostel they shared. They started out as The Wolf Brothers, playing cover songs; later, they formed Hootie & the Blowfish with Felber, a previous high school bandmate of Bryan’s, and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld.

Brantley Smith was the band’s original drummer. He left the band to pursue a career in music ministry, but he has made sporadic guest appearances with the band in the past (he played cello on their MTV Unplugged performance in 1996, and played drums at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas, on June 27, 2008).

In 1991 and 1992, the band self-released two cassette demo EPs. Kootchypop, a self-released EP, was pressed in 50,000 copies in 1993.Cracked Rear View was their mainstream first album (1994). It was an instant hit, selling 16 times platinum in the United States and becoming the best-selling album of 1995. “Hold My Hand” (U.S. #10), “Let Her Cry” (U.S. #9), “Only Wanna Be with You” (U.S. #6), and “Time” (U.S. #14) were the album’s biggest singles. Along with several other athletes, Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins appeared in the band’s video for the song “Only Wanna Be with You.”

At the 1996 Grammy Awards, the band was named “Best New Artist.” On the eve of the release of their second album, Fairweather Johnson, in 1996, Hootie & the Blowfish performed on MTV Unplugged. Despite the fact that it contained the smash track “Old Man and Me” (U.S. #13), the album only sold four million copies in the United States.

The song “Hey Hey What Can I Do,” written by Hootie & the Blowfish, was included in the Encomium tribute album to Led Zeppelin in 1995. Despite the fact that their cover of Canadian group 54-40’s “I Go Blind,” which was first published on the Friends soundtrack in 1995, did not feature on Cracked Rear View or Fairweather Johnson, it became a radio smash in 1996 when three songs from Fairweather Johnson were released. Both “Hey Hey What Can I Do” and “I Go Blind” were later included in the Scattered, Smothered, and Covered collection.

Breaking Records, Hootie and the Blowfish’s own record label, was founded in 1996 as a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. They had intended to focus on signing acts from the Carolinas. Edwin McCain and Cravin’ Melon were both linked with the label at one time, but none of them released any music on it. Breaking Records issued one album each by Meat Puppets, Jump, Little Children, Treadmill Trackstar, and Treehouse. In the year 2000, the label went out of business. They made an appearance on Frank Wildhorn’s concept album for the musical The Civil War in 1998. In 2000, the band released Scattered, Smothered, and Covered, a B-sides and rarities compilation.

In 2001, the band reproduced the 1968 Orpheus song “Can’t Find the Time” for the Jim Carrey film Me, Myself, and Irene’s soundtrack. During many gigs on the West Coast of the United States in 2001, Orpheus leader Bruce Arnold played the song with the band. Hootie and the Blowfish performed a live ballet in 2009 that documented their journey to fame in the 1990s.

In an AOL Sessions interview in 2008, Rucker said that Hootie and the Blowfish would be going on sabbatical so that he could focus on his solo career as a country music musician.

Despite the fact that the band will no longer be recording or traveling, Rucker stated that they will continue to play their scheduled charity shows, saying, “We have four charity events every year and we will still do those, but we will not do an album or tour.” The gap will remain “for five or six years, or until I release three or four country albums,” according to Rucker. “To be honest with you, we’re not even split up right now, and we’re not actually thinking about splitting up,” he subsequently said.

Hootie & The Blowfish Discography

Imperfect CircleSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Looking for LuckySpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Hootie & the BlowfishSpotifyYouTubeAmazon
Musical ChairsSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Fairweather JohnsonSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Cracked Rear ViewSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon

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Frequently Asked Questions

What Was Hootie And The Blowfish Biggest Hit?

The group’s 1994 debut album, Cracked Rear View, was the 16th-best-selling album of all time in the United States, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) 21 times. It was also nominated for Grammy Album of the Year.

Why Are They Called Hootie And The Blowfish?

When band members Darius Rucker, Dean Felber, Jim Sonefeld, and Mark Bryan were in the process of coming up with a name for their newly formed band, they had a bit of difficulty. They eventually decided on Hootie and the Blowfish as a nod to one of their nicknames for lead singer Darius Rucker, and also to the fact that they all loved to play music together. The name has stuck with them ever since, and they continue to produce great music such as Hootie and the Blowfish.

Who Wrote Songs For Hootie And The Blowfish?

Darius Rucker. However, all four members of the band – Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld – wrote songs for the group. In addition, they often collaborated with outside songwriters, such as Matthew Wilder, who co-wrote the band’s first hit single, “Hold My Hand”. One song that would have been on their album but was never released is called “Let Go of My Hand”, which the band recorded in 1994. The song was eventually picked up by Reba McEntire and may still be a hit today.

Who Is Lead Singer Of Hootie And The Blowfish?

Darius Rucker is the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish. He is also a solo artist and has released several albums.

Most Searched For Hootie & The Blowfish Songs

Let Her CrySpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Hold My HandSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Only Wanna Be with YouSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
TimeSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
I Go BlindSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
I Will WaitSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Old Man & MeSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Hold OnSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Tucker’s TownSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon
Not Even the TreesSpotifyAppleYouTubeAmazon