Phil Collins, Elton John, and Gloria Estefan dominated Adult Contemporary radio back in the 1980s and '90s, yet have disappeared from modern radio. Seemingly, the only time you ever hear them is at the grocery store or your local CVS. This blog remembers the music, the stories and the quirky characters from my days working in Adult Contemporary radio.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Hootie & The Blowfish - "Time"
Radio killed Hootie & The Blowfish. The group's Cracked Rear View album burst onto the scene in 1994 and produced immediate hits: "Hold My Hand", "Only Wanna Be With You", "Let Her Cry", and "Time". Before long, every radio station was pumping out Hootie & The Blowfish. With four hit singles, you couldn't go an hour (or less) without hearing Hootie. This led to people violently screaming whenever they heard a Hootie song or even at the mere mention of the word "Hootie". I remember being a young intern at a radio station and someone sent a fax to the radio station declaring if we played another Hootie song, they would change the station. Yeah, good luck finding a station that wasn't playing Hootie (classical music, anyone?). Though commercially successful, Hootie & The Blowfish's follow up album could not replicate the success of Cracked Rear View, and the band began a slow fade into obscurity. To lead singer Darius Rucker's credit, he reinvented himself as a successful country artist.