Cracked Rear View

Cracked Rear View
Studio album by Hootie & the Blowfish
Released	July 5, 1994 (1994-07-05)[1][2]
Recorded	November 1993 − March 1994
Studio	NRG Recording Studios, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California[3]
Genre	Roots rock heartland rock jangle pop
Length	46:36
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Don Gehman[3]
Hootie & the Blowfish chronology
Kootchypop (1993) Cracked Rear View (1994) Fairweather Johnson (1996)
Singles from Cracked Rear View
"Hold My Hand" Released: July 18, 1994 "Let Her Cry" Released: December 17, 1994 "Only Wanna Be with You" Released: July 17, 1995 "Time" Released: October 24, 1995 "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 sold an equivalent of 21 million copies in the US, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time.

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.^[4]

Reception[]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	B[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[8]

Cracked Rear View is Hootie & the Blowfish's most successful album. It was the best-selling album of 1995, with 10.5 million shipments that year alone, eventually achieving 21 million album equivalent units by May 21, 2018. It is the joint 19th-best-selling album of all time in the United States.^[9] Cracked Rear View reached number one on the Billboard 200 five times over the course of 1995. The album also reached number one in Canada^[10] and New Zealand.^[11] Three million copies were sold through the Columbia House mail-order system.^[12]

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

• 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

• Mark Bryan – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocal percussion, mandolin on "Only Wanna Be with You", piano on "Not Even the Trees",
• Dean Felber – bass guitar, clavinet, vocals, piano on "Only Wanna Be with You"
• Darius Rucker – vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
• Jim "Soni" Sonefeld – drums, percussion, vocals, piano on "Look Away" and "Goodbye", glasses on "Not Even the Trees"

Additional musicians

• David Crosby – background vocals on "Hold My Hand"
• Lili Haydn – violin on "Look Away" and "Running from an Angel"
• John Nau – piano on "I'm Goin' Home", Hammond organ

Production

• Jean Cronin – art direction
• Don Gehman – production, engineering, mixing
• Michael McLaughlin – photography
• Wade Norton – assistant engineering
• Gena Rankin – production coordination
• Eddy Schreyer – mastering
• Tim Sommer – artists and repertoire
• Liz Sroka – assistant mixing

Charts[]

Certifications[]

Certifications for Cracked Rear View

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[23]	2× Platinum	140,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[24]	Diamond	1,000,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[25]	Gold	100,000^
United States (RIAA)[26]	21× Platinum	21,000,000
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Awards[]

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

See also[]

• List of best-selling albums in the United States

References[]