Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - A Little Love and Some Tenderness Edition Part 1
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
One of the most improbable blockbuster successes of the ’90s was Hootie and the Blowfish: a South Carolina bar band fronted by a Black lead singer that played jangly alt-pop. That singer, Darius Rucker, built a career that’s one of a kind. Rucker’s tastes growing up were eclectic, as were the influences on his young bandmates. Their Cracked Rear View album took a year to catch on, but then it dominated the charts.
The story gets more interesting after Hootie fell off: Darius Rucker’s career is a prime example of how chart success is a product of musical trend. First, Rucker tried to become a neo-soul star. Then he tried his hand at country music, even though Nashville had not produced a major Black solo star since Charley Pride.
Join Chris Molanphy as he traces this improbable journey—the role Rucker’s band played in mainstreaming alt-rock, Rucker’s effort to find a genre to call home, and how he finally became a chart-conqueror again..
Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.
Make an impact this Black History Month by helping Macy’s on their mission to fund UNCF scholarships for HBCU students. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening ad-free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:03.8 | Hey there, hit parade listeners. |
| 0:06.4 | What you're about to hear is part one of this episode. |
| 0:10.2 | Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. |
| 0:14.1 | Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? |
| 0:18.1 | Sign up for Slate Plus. |
| 0:19.7 | It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's |
| 0:23.7 | acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com slash hit parade plus. You'll get to hear |
| 0:31.3 | every hit parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus, hit parade The Bridge, our bonus episodes, with guest interviews, |
| 0:40.4 | deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again, to join, that's slate.com |
| 0:47.9 | slash hit parade plus. Thanks, and now please enjoy part one of this Hit Parade episode. |
| 1:05.0 | Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. |
| 1:13.3 | I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number |
| 1:18.5 | One series on today's show. |
| 1:21.5 | 27 years ago, in February 1996, a former college bar band from Columbia, South Carolina, was performing |
| 1:30.9 | this song on television, live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. |
| 1:36.9 | The song was called, I'm Going Home. |
| 1:40.0 | But this foursome wasn't going home anytime soon. |
| 1:44.1 | They were on the Grammy Awards, not only performing a track from their 12-times platinum album, |
| 1:52.2 | but also winning statuettes, including the coveted Best New Artist Prize. |
| 1:58.6 | They'd had an awfully good year. |
| 2:01.6 | Shia La La La La La La La La |
... |
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