Experience the exclusive, behind-the-scenes story of one of the biggest bands of the nineties
In 1985, Mark Bryan heard Darius Rucker singing in a dorm shower at the University of South Carolina and asked him to form a band. For the next eight years, Hootie & the Blowfish—completed by bassist Dean Felber and drummer Soni Sonefeld—played every frat house, roadhouse, and rock club in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, becoming one of the biggest independent acts in the region.
In Only Wanna Be with You, Tim Sommer, the ultimate insider who signed Hootie to Atlantic Records, pulls back the curtain on a band that defied record-industry odds to break into the mainstream by playing hacky sack music in the age of grunge. He chronicles the band's indie days; the chart-topping success—and near-cancelation—of their major-label debut, cracked rear view; the year of Hootie (1995) when the album reached no. 1, the "Only Wanna Be with You" music video collaboration with ESPN's SportsCenter became a sensation, and the band inspired a plotline on the TV show Friends; the lean years from the late 1990s through the early 2000s; Darius Rucker's history-making rise in country music; and one of the most remarkable comeback stories of the century. Featuring extensive new interviews with the band members, some of their most famous fans, and stories from the recording studio, tour bus, and golf course, this book is essential reading for Hootie lovers and music buffs.
- Cover
- ONLY WANNA BE WITH YOU
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- CONTENTS
- Preface: Hootie Is the Name of a Group and Other Textual Notes
- Introduction
- PART I: 1983–1989 Let’s See If We Know Any of the Same Songs
- 1: Man, Was That You Singing?
- 2: As Soon as I Saw the Sleeve, I Wanted to Sing Along
- 3: The Wolf Brothers
- 4: I’ll Play Bass Until You Find Someone Else
- 5: We Have to Name the Band
- PART II: 1989–1993 Four Guys Who Wanted to Shoot for the Moon
- 6: Beach Music and the Charismatic Quirk
- 7: Jim Sonefeld Dreamed of Playing Soccer
- 8: Fifteen R.E.M. Songs and a Promise
- 9: Go Team
- 10: The Johnny Quest Playbook . . . and Beyond: Lawyers, Cassettes, and Good and Bad Times at the Frats
- 11: Crossing the First Threshold
- 12: The Bill Clinton of Rock Bands
- PART III: 1993–1997 The Ultimate Boon
- 13: Hacky Sack Music in the Age of Flannel
- 14: A Group the Research Proved Would Sell
- 15: Advance? Just Pay for the Record!
- 16: The Bones Were There
- 17: Green Juice and Post-It Notes: Mixing Hootie & the Blowfish
- cracked rear view Track by Track
- 18: Unreleasable
- 19: We Viewed Ourselves as Lowercase
- 20: Mission Control
- 21: The Ga-billion People in the Middle
- 22: How A Man Named Gray Almost Shot and Killed cracked rear view
- 23: The Year of Hootie
- 24: Top of the Charts
- 25: To Be Thriller, or Not to Be Thriller?
- 26: Not Allowed to Be Done
- 27: Thou Shall Not Disturb the Flow of Commerce
- 28: The Ride Was Going to End
- PART IV: 1998–2003 The People They Lend Money To
- 29: Musical Chairs
- 30: Blind(ers)
- 31: A Political Casualty That Still Had a Contract
- PART V: 2003–2008 Paying Dividends
- 32: Doc
- 33: End of the Never-Ending Party
- 34: Another Tour Would Have Been a Roll of the Dice
- 35: He Just Needs to Be
- 36: Somebody Who Looks Like Me
- 37: Covering Yourself
- PART VI: 2019–2020 The Soundtrack of Your Life
- 38: Thirteen Thousand Kegs
- 39: Where’s Our Country Song?
- 40: An Unfinished Story
- Discography: 1990–2020
- Acknowledgments
Text
Audio
Adobe DRM
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