Trivia / Hootie & the Blowfish

• The Pete Best: Brantley Smith was the original drummer, but he left before the band signed with Atlantic.
• What Could Have Been: Hootie & The Blowfish only found their way to Atlantic Records through a tragic circumstance. Atlantic A&R rep Tim Sommer had initially planned to sign the rising Seattle punk band the Gits as his first acquisition for the label... and then their lead singer Mia Zapata was raped and murdered just a few days after the band had agreed to join the label.^note Zapata's murder was not solved until 2003. Despondent after the death of Zapata, Sommer looked through a stack of demos on his desk and only then found Hootie's Kootchypop EP. In his piece for Observer about signing Hootie, Sommer recalls visiting a Hootie show in Seattle:
  "I flew in and announced to the band, 'You are giving every dollar you make tonight to a rape crisis group set up in Mia Zapata’s name. I never want you to forget that you almost certainly wouldn’t be here if a brilliant and talented young woman hadn’t been murdered.' They did as they were told."