Hold My Hand – Hootie & The Blowfish

Welcome to Tune Talk!

When we first selected this song, I thought it just would be a fun and simple write up without a lot of interesting history behind it, but wrong I was! As it turns out, “Hold My Hand” had a very interesting path from recording to radio smash hit.

When Hootie & The Blowfish were first trying to make it big, they were doing so during a period of time when the dark and heavy sound of grunge was dominating the music market. Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were what we were tuning in to listen to regularly, and record labels initially rejected Hootie and what was perceived to be a “too happy” vibe for the 90s. Little did they know while they were grinding away trying to make a name for themselves that a helping hand would soon come from an unlikely place.

As the story goes, one day while stuck in New York City traffic, David Letterman heard “Hold My Hand” on his car radio and loved it. He became so obsessed with the track that he immediately called his talent booker and said they had to book the band. When they went on to perform on the show, Letterman announced to his viewers that Hootie was his favorite new band. Just like that their popularity soared, and the very next day record stores couldn’t keep the album in stock. As a result, their album “Cracked Rear View” became one of the best-selling albums in the United States, selling over 22 million copies.

Lori and I got to see Hootie & The Blowfish perform live during the height of their popularity. One moment that always stood out to us from the concert was when the band gave a happy birthday shout out to a friend they called “Squirrel.” I don’t know why, but we thought it was hilarious that they had a friend named Squirrel, and for weeks after the concert, for no apparent reason, we would walk around randomly calling out “SQUIRREL!!” and laughing.

Fast forward many years to when Darius Rucker was performing as a country act… Once again, we got to see him in concert while he was touring with Lady A at Radio City Music Hall. Halfway through his set he stopped to send out a birthday greeting to a friend… You may have already guessed that it was none other than the famous Squirrel!

We laughed of course, and then thought there is no way in hell after all of these years that we were seeing him again on the EXACT same date! We went home and dug out our old concert ticket stubs – as we suspected, different dates. With a little more research we learned that the whole Squirrel thing was just a big joke that they had kept up for years to help keep themselves amused while on the road.

I guess it was sort of contagious because their squirrel joke turned into something we too would laugh about for years, and we would never have known the truth if we hadn’t seen him in concert a second time.

How do you rate “Hold My Hand?” Do you have favorite line in the lyrics? Did you have a squirrel moment of your own? Drop a comment and let us know!