| Fairweather Johnson | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 23, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | October 1995 | |||
| Studio | The Site, San Rafael, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 49:20 | |||
| Label | Atlantic 82886-2 | |||
| Producer | Don Gehman | |||
| Hootie & the Blowfish chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Fairweather Johnson | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Christgau’s Consumer Guide | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B [4] |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Now | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 5/10 [7] |
Fairweather Johnson is the second studio album by American rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, released on April 23, 1996, through Atlantic Records. Three songs from the album were released as singles: "Old Man & Me", "Tucker's Town", and "Sad Caper". The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in May 1996, while their debut, Cracked Rear View , was still in the charts. It has sold 2,361,000 copies in the US as of May 2012. [8]
Despite its initial success, sales tapered off quickly, and the album earned mixed reviews; much of the criticism took aim at the album's dour, alt-rock inspired sound as opposed to the jangly radio-friendly style of Cracked Rear View. It was included in Pitchfork Media's 2010 list of "ten career-killing albums" of the 1990s. [9] Stylus Magazine shared sentiments, including it in their "Non-Definitive Guide to the Follow-Up", saying "really, everyone saw this one coming a mile off. Who was really gonna care about another Hootie album?" [10]
All songs written by Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker and Jim "Soni" Sonefeld.
Hootie & the Blowfish
Other musicians
Production
| Chart (1996) [11] | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums chart | 12 |
| Canadian Albums chart [12] | 6 |
| Dutch Albums chart | 37 |
| German Albums chart | 41 |
| New Zealand Albums chart | 6 |
| Scottish Albums chart [13] | 9 |
| Swedish Albums chart | 36 |
| Swiss Albums chart | 37 |
| UK Albums chart | 9 |
| US Billboard 200 | 1 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand (RMNZ) [14] | Gold | 7,500^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) [15] | Gold | 100,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA) [16] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||