The Goo Goo Dolls are an American band Formed in 1986 by founding members vocalist & guitarist John Rzeznik and vocalist & bass guitarist Robby Takac. Both Rzeznik and Takac are from Buffalo, New York. Since the end of 1994, Mike Malinin has been the band's drummer, a position previously held by George Tutuska.
Renowned for their commercially successful 1998 single "Iris", their other notable and popular singles include "Name" from 1995's A Boy Named Goo, "Broadway", "Black Balloon" and "Slide" from 1998's Dizzy Up The Girl, which produced five top-10 singles, and "Here Is Gone", "Sympathy" and "Big Machine" from 2002's Gutterflower.
The Goo Goo Dolls have 14 top-10 singles and have sold nearly 9 million albums in the United States alone.
The sound of the Goo Goo Dolls today is different from how they sounded in 1986 when they were originally called The Sex Maggots. With Rzeznik & Takac, and George Tutuska on drums & percussion, The Sex Maggots were a punk band that played the music circuit in the Buffalo, New York, area. They changed their name after a concert promoter refused to book them on concern that the name would not attract many paying customers. The name Goo Goo Dolls came about after the trio saw an add for a "goo goo doll" in True Detective magazine. It was a spur of the moment decision that has caused them regret over the years.
They released their fist album, self-titled, on Mercenary Records in 1987. The following year they were picked up by the larger Celluloid Records company.
The band moved to Los Angeles, California, with the release of their second album, Jed.
In 1990 the band released their third album, Hold Me Up. Unlike most of their prior songs, that featured Takac as the lead vocalist, Rzeznik was now doing lead vocals on most of the tracks. The bands influence from a number of genres, including heavy metal, pop, and punk, were more noticeable as their sound continued to evolve. They recorded the song "I'm Awake Now" for the soundtrack of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
With the band getting positive media attention the band released Superstar Car Wash in 1993 on Metal Blade Records. The song "Fallin' Down" was featured on the soundtrack to the film Son In Law with 90's star Pauly Shore.
Tutuska left the band in 1994 after recoding the ablum A Boy Named Goo. His departure was due to conflicts with Rzeznik and dispute over royalties for his contribution to the writing of "Fallin' Down" the year before. Mike Malinin was brought in as a replacement for Tutuska and remains with the band since. The song "Name" from A Boy Named Goo was a huge success and the album went on to be the first double-platinum achievement for Metal Blade. The success of "Name" led to a guest appearance on Beverly Hills, 90210.
Before the release of Dizzy Up the Girl in 1998 the band had a dispute with Metal Blade in which the bad claimed that their 1987 contract unfairly restricted the amount of royalties the band received. Dispute came to settlement with the Goo Goo Dolls being signed to Warner Bros. Records who were the distributing label for Metal Blade.
For the 1998 movie City of Angels, Rzeznik was approached to write a song for the soundtrack. The song, "Iris", was the result and it became the song to launch the band into mainstream stardom. The song went on to stay on the Billboard Hot 100 for 18 weeks and garnered three emmy nominations for the group. "Iris" was included on the 1998 album Dizzy Up the Girl. Dizzy Up the Girl had a much more polished sound from their prior albums and, thanks to songs like "Slide", "Black Balloon", and "Broadway", the band gained a large number of new fans.
The Goos released their first compilation CD in 2001, What I Learned about Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce.
Continuing on the success of their sound of Dizzy Up the Girl, Gutterflower was released in 2002 with songs that reflected Rzeznik's recent divorce. The album went on to achieve Gold status thanks to fan favorites "Here Is Gone", "Sympathy", and "Big Machine".
Putting on a free concert for their fans in their hometown of Buffalo, the band refused to stop playing even though a deluge of rain was pouring down. The convert was recorded and released as a DVD. The DVD package contained a studio version of their cover of "Give a Little Bit" but Supertramp which went on to chart on the Adult Top 40 in 2005.
"Give A Little Bit" was also included on the 2006 album Let Love In. The songs "Better Days", "Stay With You", and "Let Love In" all became Top 10 radio singles. "Better Days" was used in the trailer for the movie Love Happens in 2009, and the CBS TV show Jericho. It was also used as part of a 2007 promotion for the Buffalo Sabres NHL hockey team.
The song "Before It's Too Late" is single from the 2007 blockbuster movie Transformers. The Goos made appearances on both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to promote the song. The same year the band did a live performance on A&E's Private Sessions where they openly talked about their career to date.
Greatest Hits: Volume One: The Singles is a greatest hits album released in 2007. It included remixed versions of "Name" & "Feel The Silence".
Greatest Hits: Volume Two was released in 2008 and included many less mainstream songs but still well known to their fans.
The Goo Goo Dolls released the single "Real" to iTunes in July of 2008. It was part of the promotion of the 2008 AT&T USA Olympic Team at the Beijing Olympics. The single was also used for the World Wrestling Entertainment's "Tribute to the Troops 2008" event theme song.
Something For The Rest of Us is the bands ninth studio album and was released in August of 2010.
"All That You Are" is a single that was recorded for the soundtrack to the 2011 movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
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