The Goo Goo Dolls

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The Goo Goo Dolls

Rock band

In early 1995 the Goo Goo Dolls were dubbed “America’s best unknown band” in their record company biography. They had released several albums, each of which garnered ample critical acclaim and expanded their loyal fan base, yet full-blown commercial success eluded the Dolls until late 1995, when their song “Name” became a huge hit at modern rock radio. While the band has often been compared to the post-punk garage pop of the Replacements, Huh magazine’s Dave Kendall described the band as, “poppy punk rockers, just like the Buzzcocks and 999.”

The Goo Goo Dolls, comprised of singer-guitarist Johnny Rzeznik, singer-bassist Robby Takac, and drummer Mike Malins (who replaced drummer George Tutuska in 1995) formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1985. Before choosing the name Goo Goo Dolls, the band was briefly known as Sex Maggot. Takac and Rzeznik decided on the name Goo Goo Dolls when they spotted an ad for a doll with a moveable, rubber head in True Detective magazine.

Early musical influences for the band include the Sex Pistols, the Damned, Devo, the Plasmatics and other punk rock pioneers of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Rzeznik told Huh’s Kendall, “The first wave of punk stuff that came from England just blew me away when I heard it…. The Damned and the Buzzcocks, all that was amazing. Then there was the East Coast American stuff … the Ramones and the Dead Boys. And some of the West Coast stuff … Fear and the Dickies and those bands were great.”

Rzeznik was born in 1965 to a postal clerk and his wife. He has four older sisters. His grandparents arrived in the U.S. from Kraków, Poland, in 1913. After moving to Buffalo when Rzeznik was a child, his family opened a neighborhood bar. As a teenager, he decided he wanted to become a plumber. His father died of complications from alcoholism when Rzeznik was 15. His mother died six months later. Rzeznik told Billboard’s Timothy White, “My mom was gone six months later’cause she was so lonely. If it hadn’t been for my sisters, I wouldn’t have made it.”

Rzeznik worked as an assistant plumber for one day before quitting to enroll in Buffalo State University. At the time he was playing in a band called the Beaumonts, a hardcore punk outfit. Rzeznik’s cousin played in a heavy metal band of which Takac was a member. The two met through this connection and became fast friends and, not long after, musical collaborators.

Rzeznik shared his band’s philosophy with Billboard’s White, allowing, “Our music is saying that it’s best to keep yourself more process-oriented than outcome-oriented….

For the Record…

Members include Mike Malins (replaced George Tutuska, 1995), drums; Johnny Rzeznik (born December 5, 1965, in Buffalo, NY; son of Joseph [a postal clerk and bar proprietor] and Edith Pomeroy Rzeznik), vocals, guitar; and Robby Takac, vocals, bass.

Group formed in 1985 in Buffalo, NY; known briefly as Sex Maggot; released debut album, Goo Goo Dolls, Mercenary/Celluloid, 1987; signed with Death/Enigma and released Jed, 1989; signed with Metal Blade/Warner Bros, and released Hold Me Up, 1990.

Addresses: Record company; —Warner Bros. Records, 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505; 75 Rockefeller Plaza, 20th floor, New York, NY 10019.

If you can somehow do things from the bottom of your soul, but not get hung up dwelling on them, then it’s a good, unselfish feeling.”

The Goo Goo Dolls started out covering songs by artists as diverse as Prince, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the Plimsouls, adding their own twist of homespun humor. The band had to rent performance spaces in order to play. Matt Ashare of the Boston Phoenix described their early original material as “loud, raucous songs that combined Ramones-style buzz-saw guitars with Cheap Trick hooks and a lot of rock-and-roll heart.”

The band’s debut album, Goo Goo Dolls, released on the independent Mercenary label, was picked up in 1987 by a larger indie, Celluloid Records. Takac told Rolling Stone’s Chris Mundy of the band’s relationship with the label, “I’ll give the guy at Celluloid Records one thing—he put out our record…. But we’d say,’We need twenty dollars for gas,’ and he’d say,’What the f—k are you calling me for?’ They were making 90 percent of the profit, we paid all of the bills.”

The Goo Goo Dolls then decided to try their hand in Los Angeles, where they struggled mightily, surviving on peanut butter sandwiches. They signed with the Death/Enigma label and released the album Jed in 1989. The band discovered major-label media visibility with their next album, 1990’s Hold Me Up, issued on Metal Blade, an imprint of Warner Bros. The album’s title is a tribute to the faith of the Catholic-raised bandmembers, though it is meant more as a general statement about spirituality than Catholicism specifically.

The release of 1993’s Superstar Car Wash, which included the lauded singles Fallin Down’ and “Already There,” served to underscore the artistry, dedication, and talent of the Goo Goo Dolls. By 1993 the Dolls were being heralded as the next Replacements. Paul West-erberg, the leader of that band, even wrote the lyrics to one of the songs on Superstar Car Wash. But A Boy Named Goo, released in 1995, would mark the band’s crossover to mass appeal, sparked by their song “Name.”

A Boy Named Goo was produced by Lou Giordano, whose credits include albums by Hüsker Dü, Sugar, the Smithereens, and Pere Ubu and who is credited by Rzeznik with imparting a raw, rough, power-pop sound to the album. Rob Cavallo, who earned his reputation working with Green Day, also produced. Both Rzeznik and Takac contributed songs to A Boy Named Goo.

The Goo Goo Dolls still consider Buffalo home. Guitar World’s Tony Gervino called the city a place where “a pitcher of beer is pocket change and everybody owns their own bowling shoes.” Rzeznik’s father was, in fact, a three-time bowling champion, and each band member owns his own bowling ball. Rzeznik told New York Newsday’s Ira Robbins, “I have a great life. I getto sleep till noon. I get to scream and yell and run around and drive around in a bus and have people talk to me about myself. Wow!”