93

Hold My Hand
Hootie & The Blowfish
1994

If you know me, you know I love me some Hootie! Man these guys just burst on the scene in ‘94 right in the middle of the grunge era and it was like, what *is* this smooth adult contemporary band? And…a Black guy lead singer with three white dudes? And…his name is “Hootie”? And…why is the drummer playing with no shirt on? But what I remember about the song from the early days is when I broke my knee my senior year of high school, and I would go to PT and there was this 20-something therapist named Brooke who would work on my knee, and this song always seemed to be on in the background as she was working on my knee, and…

What? What happened? Anyyyyyways, I love Darius Rucker’s deep baritone, love the lead acoustic guitar to start the song, love the harmonies. It still holds up, IMO. I think it gets some grief because of how much this was played endlessly on the radio, but it’s awesome (as is the entire debut album, btw). I believe it was also the first Chad’s Goons song (if you know, you know).

Other Songs Considered:
Let Her Cry