{"id":4555,"date":"2016-04-27T15:42:48","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lichen.csd.sc.edu\/sce\/entries\/hootie-and-the-blowfish\/"},"modified":"2022-08-08T19:57:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T19:57:31","slug":"hootie-and-the-blowfish","status":"publish","type":"entry","link":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/hootie-and-the-blowfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Hootie and the Blowfish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Founded in 1986, Hootie and the Blowfish emerged as the most popular rock band on the University of South Carolina college scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Consisting of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Darius Rucker (b. 1966 in Charleston), lead guitarist Mark Bryan (b. 1967 in Silver Spring, Maryland), drummer Jim Sonefeld (b. 1964 in Lansing, Michigan), and bassist Dean Felber (b. 1967 in Bethesda, Maryland), the band suddenly grew into a national phenomenon with the release of their major label debut, <em>Cracked Rear View, <\/em>in 1994 on Atlantic Records. The album\u2019s sales started slowly but exploded in 1995 following the release of the popular radio hits \u201cHold My Hand,\u201d \u201cLet Her Cry,\u201d and \u201cOnly Want to Be with You.\u201d The album became one of the best-selling recordings in popular music history, selling more than fifteen million copies in the United States by 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Marked by Rucker\u2019s soulful singing, and the group\u2019s chiming acoustic guitar and sing-along lyrics, \u201cHootie\u201d (as the band came to be known) fell to earth as quickly as it soared. After winning two Grammy Awards for the first record, the band\u2019s second album, <em>Fairweather Johnson <\/em>(1996), reached the number one spot on all music charts, as did its predecessor, but sold only about three million copies. They followed up with <em>Musical Chairs <\/em>(1998) and <em>Scattered, Smothered, and Covered <\/em>(2000), which each garnered respectable reviews if not impressive sales figures. Nevertheless the band continued to make music, releasing <em>Hootie and the Blowfish <\/em>in 2003 and a \u201cbest of\u201d record in 2004 while touring and making national TV appearances.<\/p>\n<p>In 1996 the group performed a live, nationally televised concert on the Horseshoe at the University of South Carolina campus. That same year the band also helped Columbia obtain the annual Farm Aid concert, starring country singer Willie Nelson and others. The band played for President Bill Clinton\u2019s second inaugural ball in Washington. Known for their friendly personalities, the band still sometimes hangs out at the same Five Points bars where they played some of their first concerts, sipping beer and greeting fans.<\/p>\n<p>Bogdanov, Vladimir, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, eds. <em>All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music. <\/em>4th ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books \/ All Media Guide, 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founded in 1986, Hootie and the Blowfish emerged as the most popular rock band on the University of South Carolina college scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Consisting of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Darius Rucker (b. 1966 in Charleston), lead guitarist Mark Bryan (b. 1967 in Silver Spring, Maryland), drummer Jim Sonefeld [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":18107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-4555","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-art","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-h","ecms-midlands","ecms-popular-culture","ecms-richland-county"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hootie and the Blowfish - South Carolina Encyclopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/hootie-and-the-blowfish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hootie and the Blowfish - South Carolina Encyclopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Founded in 1986, Hootie and the Blowfish emerged as the most popular rock band on the University of South Carolina college scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 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