Cracked Rear View

Last updated

Cracked Rear View
Hootie & the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedJuly 5, 1994 (1994-07-05) [1] [2]
RecordedNovember 1993 − March 1994
Studio NRG Recording Studios, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California [3]
Genre
Length46:36
Label Atlantic
Producer Don Gehman [3]
Hootie & the Blowfish chronology
Kootchypop
(1993)
Cracked Rear View
(1994)
Fairweather Johnson
(1996)
Singles from Cracked Rear View
  1. "Hold My Hand"
    Released: July 18, 1994
  2. "Let Her Cry"
    Released: December 17, 1994
  3. "Only Wanna Be with You"
    Released: July 17, 1995
  4. "Time"
    Released: October 24, 1995
  5. "Drowning"
    Released: November 1995

Cracked Rear View is the debut studio album by Hootie & the Blowfish, released on July 5, 1994, by Atlantic Records. [2] Released to positive critical reviews, it eventually became one of the highest-selling albums in the United States, and also one of the best-selling albums worldwide, with over 20 million units. [4]

Contents

Recording

Don Gehman was chosen by A&R man Tim Sommer as a producer because of his previous work with John Mellencamp and R.E.M. [5] It cost US$200,000 to make. [6]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide B [7]
Consequence B [8]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [9]
MusicHound Rock Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [10]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [11]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]

Cracked Rear View is Hootie & the Blowfish's most successful album. Cracked Rear View reached number one on the Billboard 200 five times over the course of 1995. It was the best-selling album of 1995 in the United States, selling 7 million copies. [13] In April 1996, Time reported that the album had generated over US$100 million in gross revenues for Atlantic Records. [6] It has sold 10.2 million copies in the United States per Nielsen SoundScan as of 2012. [14] An additional three million copies were sold through CD clubs, which are not included in SoundScan's total. [15] The album has been certified 21x platinum (double diamond) as of 2018. [16] It is the joint 19th-best-selling album of all time in the United States. [17] The album also reached number one in Canada [18] and New Zealand. [19]

Critical reviews of Cracked Rear View were mostly positive. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine crowned the album as "the success story of 1994/1995." He also stated "Although Hootie & the Blowfish aren't innovative, they deliver the goods, turning out an album of solid, rootsy folk-rock songs that have simple, powerful hooks." [2]

Track listing

All songs written by Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker and Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, except where noted.

  1. "Hannah Jane" – 3:33
  2. "Hold My Hand" – 4:15
  3. "Let Her Cry" – 5:08
  4. "Only Wanna Be with You" – 3:46 (Bryan, Felber, Rucker, Sonefeld, Bob Dylan)
  5. "Running from an Angel" – 3:37
  6. "I'm Goin' Home" – 4:10
  7. "Drowning" – 5:01
  8. "Time" – 4:53
  9. "Look Away" – 2:38
  10. "Not Even the Trees" – 4:37
  11. "Goodbye" – 4:05
Includes hidden track "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (Traditional) – 0:53

In 2001, the album was re-released on DVD-Audio with the disc featuring a discography, photo gallery, and video of a live performance of "Drowning".

The 25th anniversary edition from 2019 includes the following bonus discs:

Disc 2: B-sides, Outtakes, Pre-LP Independent Recordings

  1. "All That I Believe"
  2. "I Go Blind" (Neil Osborne, Phil Comparelli, Brad Merritt, Darryl Neudorf)
  3. "Almost Home"
  4. "Fine Line"
  5. "Where Were You"
  6. "Hey, Hey What Can I Do" (John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant)
  7. "The Old Man and Me" – Kootchypop Version
  8. "Hold My Hand" – Kootchypop Version
  9. "If You're Going My Way" – Kootchypop Version
  10. "Sorry's Not Enough" – Kootchypop Version
  11. "Only Wanna Be with You" – Kootchypop Version
  12. "Running from an Angel" – 1991 Version
  13. "Time" – 1991 Version
  14. "Let Her Cry" – 1991 Version
  15. "Drowning" – 1991 Version
  16. "I Don't Understand"
  17. "Little Girl"
  18. "Look Away" – 1990 Version
  19. "Let My People Go"
  20. "Hold My Hand" – 1990 Version

Disc 3: Live at Nick's Fat City, Pittsburgh, PA, February 3, 1995

  1. "Hannah Jane"
  2. "I Go Blind"
  3. "Not Even the Trees"
  4. "If You're Going My Way"
  5. "Look Away"
  6. "Fine Line"
  7. "Let Her Cry"
  8. "Motherless Child"
  9. "I'm Goin' Home"
  10. "Use Me"
  11. "Running from an Angel"
  12. "Sorry's Not Enough"
  13. "Drowning"
  14. "The Old Man and Me"
  15. "Only Wanna Be with You"
  16. "Time"
  17. "Goodbye"
  18. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (Lennon-McCartney)
  19. "Hold My Hand"
  20. "Love the One You're With" (Stephen Stills)

DVD

Hi-Res 24/96 Bonus Tracks

Music videos:

Personnel

Hootie & the Blowfish

Additional musicians

Production

Charts

Certifications

Certifications for Cracked Rear View
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) [33] 2× Platinum140,000^
Canada (Music Canada) [34] Diamond1,000,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [35] Gold10,000
United Kingdom (BPI) [36] Gold100,000^
United States (RIAA) [37] 21× Platinum21,000,000
Summaries
Worldwide20,000,000 [38]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Awards

YearWinnerCategory
1996"Let Her Cry" Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals

See also

Related Research Articles

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