混混与自大狂

Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1986. The band's line-up for most of its existence has been the quartet of Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber and Jim Sonefeld. The band went on hiatus in 2008 until they announced plans for a full reunion tour in 2019 and released their first new studio album in fourteen years, Imperfect Circle.

As of 2026, Hootie & the Blowfish have won two Grammy Awards, landed 16 singles on various Billboard singles charts, and released six studio albums. The band's debut album, Cracked Rear View (1994), became one of the best-selling albums in the United States and was certified platinum 22 times. The band is known for its three top-ten singles: "Hold My Hand" (1994), "Let Her Cry" (1994), and "Only Wanna Be with You" (1995). The band is also popular in Canada, having three number-one singles in the country.

History

Early years

Darius Rucker and Mark Bryan met in Columbia, South Carolina, in the mid-1980s when they were both freshmen at the University of South Carolina. Bryan, a guitar player, heard Rucker singing in the showers of the dormitory they shared and was impressed by his vocal ability. The pair began playing cover tunes as the Wolf Brothers.

Eventually, they collaborated with bassist Dean Felber, a former high school bandmate of Bryan, and Brantley Smith, a drummer. In 1986, they adopted the name Hootie & the Blowfish, a conjunction of the nicknames of two of their college friends - one who wore huge, round glasses that made him look like an owl, the other with big, puffy cheeks that made him look like a blowfish. The band is routinely featured in articles and polls about badly-named bands. Rucker is often mistakenly labeled as being the "Hootie" in the band's name. The band built a reputation at the University of South Carolina playing in local bars and fraternity houses. Smith left the group after finishing college to pursue music ministry, but he has made scattered guest appearances with the band (he played cello on their MTV Unplugged performance in 1996 and played drums at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas, on June 27, 2008). Smith was replaced full time in 1989 by Jim "Soni" Sonefeld. The band's lineup has remained the same ever since.

The band independently released two cassette demo EPs in 1991 and 1992. In 1993, they pressed 50,000 copies of a self-released EP, Kootchypop. They were signed to Atlantic Records in August 1993 after being discovered by Atlantic A&R representative Tim Sommer, a former music journalist and member of the art rock band Hugo Largo. Sommer recalled that other record labels were uninterested in signing Hootie & The Blowfish because their sound was radically different from the grunge music that was popular at the time.

1994–1995: Cracked Rear View and mainstream success

Their mainstream debut album was Cracked Rear View , released in July 1994, the album was certified platinum in the United States in January 1995 and featured four hits, "Hold My Hand" (U.S. No. 10), "Let Her Cry" (U.S. No. 9), "Only Wanna Be with You" (U.S. No. 6), and "Time" (U.S. No. 14). The album's last single, "Drowning", was not as successful as its predecessors, peaking only on the Mainstream Rock chart. In 1995, Hootie & the Blowfish and Bob Dylan reached an out-of-court settlement for the group's unauthorized use of Dylan's lyrics in their song "Only Wanna Be with You". Miami Dolphins' Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino appeared along with several other athletes in the band's video for the song "Only Wanna Be with You".

1996–1997: Fairweather Johnson and promotional singles

In 1995, Hootie & the Blowfish contributed the song "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" to the Encomium tribute album to Led Zeppelin. Their cover of Canadian group 54-40's "I Go Blind", released on the soundtrack to the television series Friends in 1995, did not appear on Cracked Rear View or Fairweather Johnson, but it became a hit on radio in 1996 after three singles from Fairweather Johnson had been released. Both "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" and "I Go Blind" were later released on the compilation Scattered, Smothered and Covered.

On February 28, 1996, at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, Hootie & the Blowfish won the Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (for the single "Let Her Cry") and the Grammy for "Best New Artist". The band appeared on MTV Unplugged on the eve of the release of their second album, Fairweather Johnson (1996). The album contained the hit single "Old Man and Me" (U.S. No. 13), and sold four million copies in the United States.

1998–2008: Middle years

In 1998, the band performed on Frank Wildhorn's concept album of the musical The Civil War. Hootie & the Blowfish released their third studio album, Musical Chairs, on September 15, 1998. It spawned the singles "I Will Wait" and "Only Lonely".