''Cracked Rear View'' is the debut studio album by

Hootie & the Blowfish Hootie & the Blowfish are an American soft rock band that were formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1986. The band's lineup for most of its existence has been the quartet of Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld. The band w ...

, released on July 5, 1994, by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. Released to positive critical reviews, it eventually sold 10.2 million copies in the United States, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Recording

Don Gehman Don Gehman is an American record producer, engineer, and executive, best known for his work with John Mellencamp and Hootie & the Blowfish. He was one of "the most successful producers of the 1980s and 1990s." As a sound engineer, he also helped ...

was chosen by A&R man

Tim Sommer Timothy Andrew Sommer (born March 5, 1962 in New York City) is an American music journalist, musician, record producer and former Atlantic Records A&R representative. Sommer was the bass player for the slowcore/dreampop band Hugo Largo. Mu ...

as a producer because of his previous work with

John Mellencamp John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrument ...

and

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternative ...

Reception

''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. It has sold 10.2 million copies in the United States per

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

as of 2012. An additional three million copies were sold through CD clubs, which are not included in SoundScan's total. The album has been certified 21x

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

(double

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

) as of 2018. It is the joint 19th-best-selling album of all time in the United States.RIAA Top 100
The album also reached number one in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Critical reviews of ''Cracked Rear View'' were mostly positive. AllMusic's

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

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."

Track listing

All songs written by

Mark Bryan Mark William Bryan (born May 6, 1967) is an American musician. He is a founding member, songwriter, and the lead guitarist for the band Hootie & the Blowfish. In 1986, Bryan and his friend Darius Rucker formed a duo called The Wolf Brothers whi ...

, Dean Felber,

Darius Rucker Darius Carlos Rucker (born May 13, 1966) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded in 1986 at the University of South Ca ...

and Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, except where noted. # "Hannah Jane" – 3:33 # " Hold My Hand" – 4:15 # " Let Her Cry" – 5:08 # " Only Wanna Be with You" – 3:46 (Bryan, Felber, Rucker, Sonefeld,

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) # "Running from an Angel" – 3:37 # "I'm Goin' Home" – 4:10 # "

Drowning Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer a ...

" – 5:01 # "

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

" – 4:53 # "Look Away" – 2:38 # "Not Even the Trees" – 4:37 # "Goodbye" – 4:05 :Includes

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", also "Motherless Child", is a traditional Spiritual. It dates back to the era of slavery in the United States. An early performance of the song was in the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. "Blue Gen ...

" (Traditional) – 0:53 In 2001, the album was re-released on

DVD-Audio DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format. The sta ...

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 #"All That I Believe" #"

I Go Blind "I Go Blind" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group 54-40. The song was released in Canada as the second single from the band's 1986 self-titled album, '' 54-40''. It has since become one of the band's most popular songs. Hootie & the Blow ...

" (Neil Osborne, Phil Comparelli, Brad Merritt, Darryl Neudorf) #"Almost Home" #"Fine Line" #"Where Were You" #" Hey, Hey What Can I Do" (John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) #"The Old Man and Me" – ''Kootchypop'' Version #"Hold My Hand" – ''Kootchypop'' Version #"If You're Going My Way" – ''Kootchypop'' Version #"Sorry's Not Enough" – ''Kootchypop'' Version #"Only Wanna Be with You" – ''Kootchypop'' Version #"Running from an Angel" – 1991 Version #"Time" – 1991 Version #"Let Her Cry" – 1991 Version #"Drowning" – 1991 Version #"I Don't Understand" #"Little Girl" #"Look Away" – 1990 Version #"Let My People Go" #"Hold My Hand" – 1990 Version Disc 3: Live at Nick's Fat City, Pittsburgh, PA, February 3, 1995 #"Hannah Jane" #"I Go Blind" #"Not Even the Trees" #"If You're Going My Way" #"Look Away" #"Fine Line" #"Let Her Cry" #"Motherless Child" #"I'm Goin' Home" #"Use Me" #"Running from an Angel" #"Sorry's Not Enough" #"Drowning" #"The Old Man and Me" #"Only Wanna Be with You" #"Time" #"Goodbye" #"

The Ballad of John and Yoko "The Ballad of John and Yoko" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in May 1969. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, and chronicles the events surroun ...

" ( Lennon-McCartney) #"Hold My Hand" #"

Love the One You're With "Love the One You're With" is a song by folk rock musician Stephen Stills. It was released as the lead single from his debut self-titled studio album in November 1970. The song, inspired by a remark Stills heard from musician Billy Preston, beca ...

" (

Stephen Stills Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has com ...

) DVD * 5.1 Surround Sound mix of the original album Hi-Res 24/96 Bonus Tracks *"All That I Believe" *"I Go Blind" *"Almost Home" *"Fine Line" *"Where Were You" Music videos: *"Hold My Hand" *"Let Her Cry" *"Only Wanna Be with You" *"Time" *"Drowning" – Live

Personnel

Hootie & the Blowfish *

–

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

vocal percussion Vocal percussion is the art of creating sounds with one's mouth that approximate, imitate, or otherwise serve the same purpose as a percussion instrument, whether in a group of singers, an instrumental ensemble, or solo. In Western music Recent ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

on "Only Wanna Be with You",

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

on "Not Even the Trees", * Dean Felber –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, piano on "Only Wanna Be with You" *

– vocals, acoustic guitar,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Jim "Soni" Sonefeld –

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s, percussion, vocals, piano on "Look Away" and "Goodbye", glasses on "Not Even the Trees" Additional musicians *

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...

–

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

on "Hold My Hand" *

Lili Haydn Lili Haydn (born December 25, 1969) is a Canadian-born rock violinist, vocalist, actress, and composer. As a child, she pursued a career as an actress; at age eight she discovered the violin and began to focus on classical music. By the time Hay ...

–

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

on "Look Away" and "Running from an Angel" * John Nau – piano on "I'm Goin' Home",

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

Production * Jean Cronin –

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, mixing * Michael McLaughlin –

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

* Wade Norton – assistant engineering * Gena Rankin – production coordination * Eddy Schreyer – mastering *

–

artists and repertoire Artists and repertoire (colloquially abbreviated to A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists (singers, instrumentalist ...

* Liz Sroka – assistant mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Awards

References

{{Authority control 1994 debut albums Hootie & the Blowfish albums Albums produced by Don Gehman Atlantic Records albums