* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is the titular old man in "Old Man and Me" simply unloading on the young man about how terrible his life has been, or is he doing so in order to make the young man (who is going off to war himself) feel better about how comparatively easy his life has been?
* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Tim Sommer, the A&R man who signed them to Creator/AtlanticRecords, tells the story of the skepticism he and the band faced in [[https://observer.com/2016/07/my-life-in-the-bush-of-hootie-how-i-signed-the-biggest-band-of-1995/ this article]]. Short version: at the height of the {{grunge}} era, virtually nobody in the record industry was interested in a band like Hootie & the Blowfish, and the head of A&R at Atlantic even described ''Cracked Rear View'' as "unreleasable" and lacking singles when he first heard it. An interesting anecdote that Sommer relays is that, before leaving for South Carolina to meet Hootie and see them perform, he took a look at the ''Billboard'' charts and noticed that Music/BobSeger's GreatestHitsAlbum was sitting in the Top 10[[note]]He probably misremembered exactly which artist's album it was; he describes making the trip to sign Hootie in August of 1993, but Bob Seger's ''Greatest Hits'' came out on October 25, 1994, three months after ''Cracked Rear View''. However, Music/RodStewart's unplugged album did make it into the Top 10 in August 1993, as did Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s ''Music/GetAGrip'', while Music/BillyJoel's ''River of Dreams'' debuted at #1 towards the end of the month.[[/note]] -- to him, a sign that the major labels had gotten so obsessed with finding the next Music/{{Nirvana}} that they were ignoring a vast market of rock fans who didn't ''want'' another Nirvana.
* FirstInstallmentWins: ''Cracked Rear View'' was such a success, not only did it instantly make the group stars, but made all of their other albums (which ''are'' good) look bad by comparison.
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: This part in "Let Her Cry":
-->So I sat back down, and [[INeedAFreakingDrink had a beer]], and [[SelfDeprecation felt sorry for myself]]!
* [[IAmNotShazam I Am Not Hootie]]: Darius Rucker is often mistaken as being nicknamed "Hootie" and his bandmates as "the Blowfish". The band's name is in fact an inside joke that refers to the nicknames of two of their friends.
* OlderThanTheyThink: "Only Wanna Be with You" was on their debut EP ''Kootchypop'' in 1993, "Time" and "Let Her Cry" were first recorded in 1991, and "Hold My Hand" was first recorded in 1990 and self-released on cassette that same year, and was also re-recorded for ''Kootchypop''. All these earlier versions have been remastered and are on the ''[[MilestoneCelebration 25th Anniversary]] Deluxe Edition'' of ''Cracked Rear View''.
* SignatureSong: Multiple:
** "Hold My Hand"
** "Let Her Cry"
** "Only Wanna Be with You"
* SophomoreSlump: ''Fairweather Johnson'' is one of the more notable examples in music. ''Cracked Rear View'' got 4 major hits, ''Fairweather Johnson'' produced only one. From that point onward, their hits were relegated to AC. And if chart success wasn't a big enough difference, the sales should clear it up. ''Fairweather Johnson'''s 3 times platinum would be damn good for any other band. But with a debut album like ''Cracked Rear View'', which went 21 times platinum and is still the 19th best-selling album of all time in the US, it's a shocking drop in sales.

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