What’s the Hooters big hit? Turns out the answer is deeply dependent on geography.
Most Americans remember the band for 1985 smashes “And We Danced” and “All You Zombies.” But others love the Hooters for songs that missed the charts, well, the American charts.
“‘Johnny B’ was the song that broke us in Germany, ‘Satelite’ got us our 15 minutes of fame in the UK, after which we were basically done, and ‘500 Miles’ is really the big one in Sweden and Norway,” band co-founder Eric Bazilian told the Herald.
“We kept having bigger hits in smaller countries,” Bazilian added with a laugh.
When the band came up with its setlist for its current tour – its first U.S. tour in years – with Rick Springfield, it didn’t even include European hits “Johnny B” or “500 Miles.” The tour, which Springfield specifically recruited the Hooters for, stops at the Lynn Auditorium on Sunday.
Now if you’re from Philly, and in your 50s or 60s, you may have a whole other set of favorites.
Before going global, the roots rockers were a ska/reggae band tearing up the Pennsylvania-Delaware-New Jersey tri state area. Recently, the Hooters indulged in a flashback to those days with new album “Rocking & Swing,” a positively skanking and cranking LP that mixes fresh songs with tunes they played in their club days.
“[Hooters co-found] Rob [Hyman] and I started in Baby Grand, which was sort of like Steely Dan on steroids, and after that we wanted to something for the audience, something for people to dance to, something that was a party, that would keep people coming back,” Bazilian said.
British ska had just crashed American shores and, long before Boston went ska crazy with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Bim Skala Bim, the Hooters helped break the style in the States. But by the 1985 breakthrough album “Nervous Night,” the Hooters began to evolve.
“As we introduced more of the folky instruments, on later records (1987’s) ‘One Way Home’ and (1989’s) ‘Zig Zag,’ we really got away from ska,” Bazilian said. “But we always wondered if we would get back to it.”
From ska to roots rock, opening the 1985 Philadelphia Live Aid concert to playing with Roger Waters at the Berlin Wall in 1990, to dotting the charts across Europe, the Hooters have had an unlikely run. When you consider Bazilian and Hyman’s work outside the band, their careers are even more unique.
If you ask someone what their favorite song by Bazilian or Hyman is, you might hear “And We Danced” or “Johnny B.” Or you might hear something they wrote for someone else – Bazilian penned Joan Osbourne’s “One of Us,” Hyman co-wrote “Time After Time” with Cyndi Lauper.
So many songs, so many favorites. Even Bazilian has an underdog Hooters tune he’d like to nominate.
“‘South Ferry Road’,” Bazilian said. “That’s my knee jerk reaction.”
It’s a great song – find it on the excellent back half of “Nervous Night.” Although there are a lot of great ones. Just ask people in Philly, or Berlin, or Scandinavia.
For music, tour dates and details, visit hootersmusic.com