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Song of the Day #6,568: ‘Goodbye’ – Hootie and the Blowfish

Continuing my list of best debut albums (with quite a few caveats)…

Hootie and the Blowfish – Cracked Rear View (1994)

I couldn’t resist listing the best-selling debut album in U.S. history, especially when it’s one I really loved back in the day. I haven’t returned to Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View much since my early 20s, but it has the same comfortable power when I do.

This album received a modest rollout, aimed at boosting the profile of a hard-working bar band. It ended up catching fire, selling more than 20 million copies in the U.S. alone, buoyed by the top ten hits ‘Hold Her Hand,’ ‘Let Her Cry,’ and ‘Only Wanna Be with You.’

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Song of the Day #6,567: ‘Your Love is King’ – Sade

For awhile now, I’ve had “Best Debut Albums” written in my notes as a potential theme week. I’ve come close to compiling my list of favorites a couple of times.

But I put the brakes on it because I knew I’d end up with a roster of my usual suspects: Ben Folds Five, R.E.M., Miranda Lambert, The Smiths, Lana Del Rey, The Beatles, Talking Heads, etc., etc. All of those acts have amazing debut albums, sure, but it’s not exactly illuminating for me to trot them out one more time.

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Song of the Day #6,566: ‘Red Rubber Ball’ – The Cyrkle

The week of June 28, 1966, found a couple of legends atop the Billboard Hot 100: Frank Sinatra with ‘Strangers in the Night‘ at #1 and The Beatles with ‘Paperback Writer‘ at #2. I wrote about the latter way back in 2009 when these were Beatles Weekends.

At #3 that week was the song ‘Red Rubber Ball’ by the bizarrely named pop band The Cyrkle. The American trio was managed by none other than Brian Epstein, who also managed the little band right above them on the chart, and they actually opened for The Beatles during the Fab Four’s U.S. tour. John Lennon even suggested the spelling of their band name.

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Song of the Day #6,565: ‘I Almost Lost My Mind’ – Pat Boone

Throwing back to the week of June 27, 1956, we find Gogi Grant hanging on to the top spot with ‘The Wayward Wind,’ the unlikely hit that dethroned Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’

At #2 that week was Pat Boone with ‘I Almost Lost My Mind.’ The song eventually reached #1, becoming Boone’s second chart-topping hit (of six total in his career).

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Song of the Day #6,564: ‘Blue Bayou (Live)’ – Linda Ronstadt

That’s a wrap on my three-week Deep Dive into the career of Linda Ronstadt, one of popular music’s most versatile and talented performers. Thirty-one albums, 11 Grammys, more than 100 million record sales worldwide, and one gorgeous set of pipes.

Ronstadt found extraordinary success in a laundry list of genres: folk, country, pop, rock, soul, jazz, and Latin, not to mention Christmas music and the Great American Songbook. Time and time again, she defied the odds and turned strange artistic detours into triumphs.

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