Hootie and the Blowfish
A rock band founded in 1986 by Darius Rucker, Dean Felber, Jim Sonefeld and Mark Bryan. They broke through in 1994 with the album Cracked Rear View, one of the best-selling albums in the history of American music (it sold over 16 million copies). It also produced four big pop hits in "Hold My Hand", "Let Her Cry", "Only Wanna Be with You" and "Time", and won the band the 1996 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Although followup Fairweather Johnson was also a decent enough seller, it produced only one big hit. Following Musical Chairs, the band went on hiatus (with both Bryan and Rucker releasing solo albums), and then came back with Scattered, Smothered and Covered, a compilation which produced no singles. The band left Atlantic Records after a self-titled album in 2003, but came back in 2005 with Looking for Lucky on Vanguard Records.
Darius Rucker began a rather successful Country Music career in 2008, but he continues to tour occasionally with his bandmates.
Members:
- Darius Rucker — lead vocals, guitar
- Mark Bryan — guitar
- Dean Felber — bass, backing vocals
- Jim "Sone" Sonefeld — drums
Studio albums:
- Cracked Rear View (1994)
- Fairweather Johnson (1996)
- Musical Chairs (1998)
- Hootie & the Blowfish (2003)
- Looking for Lucky (2005)
- Genre Shift: Darius' successful transition to a country music star.
- Non-Indicative Name: The band was named for two friends. As a result, many people erroneously call Darius Rucker "Hootie".
- Long Runner Lineup
- Self-Titled Album: Strangely, their last album for Atlantic.
- Shout-Out: "Only Wanna Be with You", to Bob Dylan.