Cracked Rear View

Recording

Don Gehman was chosen by A&R man Tim Sommer as a producer because of his previous work with John Mellencamp and R.E.M..

Reception

Cracked Rear View is Hootie & the Blowfish's most successful album. It was the highest-selling album of 1995, with 10.5 million shipments that year alone, eventually shipping 16 million copies to retailers by March 31, 1999. It is the joint 16th-best-selling album of all time in the United States. Cracked Rear View reached number one on the Billboard 200 five times over the course of 1995. The album also reached number one in Canada and New Zealand. Three million copies were sold through the Columbia House mail-order system.

Critical reviews of Cracked Rear View were mostly positive. The Allmusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four and a half stars out of five, and said that it was "the success story of 1994/1995." He also said, "Although Hootie & the Blowfish aren't innovative, they deliver the goods, turning out an album of solid, rootsy folk-rock songs that have simple, powerful hooks."

Track listing

All songs written by Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker and Jim "Soni" Sonefeld.

1. "Hannah Jane" – 3:33
2. "Hold My Hand" – 4:15
3. "Let Her Cry" – 5:08
4. "Only Wanna Be with You" – 3:46
5. "Running from an Angel" – 3:37
6. "I'm Goin' Home" – 4:11
7. "Drowning" – 5:01
8. "Time" – 4:53
9. "Look Away" – 2:38
10. "Not Even the Trees" – 4:37
11. "Goodbye" – 4:05

In 2001, the album was re-released on DVD-Audio with the disc featuring a discography, photo gallery, and video of a live performance of "Drowning".

Personnel

Charts