By: Carrie Borzillo
Billboard December 9, 1995
After nine years of slugging it out on the road, the Goo Goo
Dolls are capping off hteir most commercially successful year
with a string of high profile and festive gigs.
The Buffalo, N.Y.-based trio's fifth album, "A Boy Named
Goo" on Metal Blade/Warner Bros., was recently certified gold by
the Recording Industry Assn. of America. Now the band is getting
another chance at major exposure as a featured performer on the
Billboard Music Awards.
The Goo Goo Dolls are scheduled to make their debut TV
appearance Dec. 1 on "Late Show With David Letterman" and are one
of the most sought-after bands for this year's round of modern
rock, album rock, and top 40 Christmas shows.
Modern rockers KROQ Los Angeles, KEGE Minneapolis, and WPLY
Philidelphia, and the modern rock-leaning top 40 WHTZ(Z100) New
York are among the stations that landed the band, which will cap
off the year with a New Year's Eve show at the Hard Rock Hotel in
Las Vegas.
"It's overwhelming," says singer/guitarist Johnny
Rzeznik.
"I'm so happy. It's been tiring, but a good tired."
Rzeznik says his goal now is to make the album's upcoming
second single, "Naked," as huge as "Name." The band scored its
first No. 1 Modern Rock Tracks hit with "Name" in October before
the song went on to multiformat success.
Powered by the success of "Name," "A Boy Named
Goo,"
released on March 14(Music To My Ears, Billboard, Feb. 25),
reached the peak position on the Heatseekers Impact Artists the
following week, when the album broke into the upper half of the
Billboard 200(Billboard, Oct. 7).
According to SoundScan, the album has sold more than 261,000
units.
The band, which includes bassist Robby Takac and drummer
Mike Malinin, is taking two weeks off in January before hitting
the road again.