"Only Lonely" by Hootie & The Blowfish

You could not have been alive in the 90s and not heard of Hootie & The Blowfish, the pop rock band from South Carolina that burst onto the scene in 1994 to offer an alternative to alternative. 

"Hold My Hand," which featured David Crosby on backing vocals, soared to #10 and was followed by three more successful singles: "Let Her Cry" (#9 and a Grammy winner), "Only Wanna Be With You" (#6, their biggest hit), and "Time" (#14). I've no doubt part of band's phenomenal success is due to the fact that people loved saying their name.

The band quickly followed up their hit debut record in 1996, before they had a chance to cool off. "Fairweather Johnson" was a clunker, but still gave the band two additional top 40 hits. If this were a stronger record, the band might have stayed on everyone's radar for a longer period of time. But by 1998's "Musical Chairs," which was a much better album, people had become a little disenchanted. The lead off single, "I Will Wait," performed respectively at #18, but it would be their last chart hit.

"Musical Chairs" has several other tunes that got lost in the mix. "Only Lonely" is very much in the vein of "Let Her Cry" and remains one of my favorite Hootie non-hits. Also worthy of mention is "Home Again" and "Wishing." The band released a couple more albums before Darius Rucker embarked on a successful solo career in country music.