Cracked Rear View is the major-label debut album by Hootie & the Blowfish, released on July 5, 1994 by Atlantic Records.^[1]

Reception[link]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	B[3]
Rolling Stone	[4]

Cracked Rear View is Hootie & the Blowfish's most successful album to date. 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 and selling 10.2 million copies by May 16, 2012.^[5] It is the joint fifteenth best selling album of all time in the United States.^[6] Cracked Rear View reached number one on the Billboard 200 five times.

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[link]

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

Includes hidden track "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (Traditional) – 0:54

Personnel[link]

Hootie & the Blowfish

• Mark Bryan – mandolin on "Only Wanna Be with You", piano on "Not Even the Trees", electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocal percussion
• Dean Felber – piano on "Only Wanna Be with You", bass guitar, clavinet, vocals
• Darius Rucker – vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
• Jim "Soni" Sonefeld – glasses on "Not Even the Trees", drums, percussion, vocals, piano

Additional musicians

• David Crosby – background vocals on "Hold My Hand"
• Lili Haydn – violin on "Look Away" and "Running from an Angel"
• John Nau – piano on "I'm Goin' Home", Hammond organ

Production

• Jean Cronin – art director
• Don Gehman – producer, engineer, mixing
• Michael McLaughlin – photography
• Wade Norton – assistant engineer
• Gena Rankin – production coordinator
• Eddy Schreyer – mastering
• Tim Sommer – artists and repertoire
• Liz Sroka – assistant mixing

Charts[link]

Album

End of decade charts

Awards[link]

See also[link]

• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• List of best-selling albums in the United States

References[link]