- Rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo NY, by John Rzeznik (guitars and vocals), Robby Takac (bass and vocals), and George Tutuska (drums).
- The band’s name comes from an ad they saw in True Detective magazine for a toy called a Goo Goo Doll. Rzeznik said that they were a garage band with a gig that needed a name, so they picked Goo Goo Dolls.
- Their first 2 albums were popular around Buffalo, but did not get national attention. Their third album, Hold Me Up, had more heavy metal/punk rock sounds to it, and it received some attention in college radio and punk rock clubs. Their fourth album also was popular, but their breakthrough was not yet there.
- By 1995, the band released A Boy Named Goo, which included the single Name. The album went double platinum. It was a move to an alternative rock sound, and it laid the ground work for their move to superstardom with the release of their next album, Dizzy Up The Girl, in 1998. This album contains their biggest hit, Iris, which was written by Rzeznik for the movie City Of Angels. It spent 4 weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Pop Songs chart. It was nominated for 3 Grammy awards, but it did not win any of them.
- They’ve released a total of 11 studio albums, with 24 singles released. Of these singles, Name, Iris, and Slide managed to peak in the top 10 of the Hot 100 chart.
- I love the Dizzy Up The Girl album – it is in my top 5 albums of the 90s. I also appreciate a band that started as a garage band, and through hard work, finally hit it big. Give a listen to their awesome song, Iris. I love the “big-ness” of this song, with the use of orchestra, and Rzeznik’s emotional vocals.