Hootie & The Blowfish are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Cracked Rear View, this year. The monumental record is currently the tenth best-selling album of all time since its 1994 debut, as well as the best-selling debut album of all time. To commemorate the anniversary, the band will release two new versions of the album with remastered, rare, and unreleased audio on May 31, available to pre-order here.

The 3-CD/DVD Deluxe Edition includes a newly remastered version of the original album, rare and unreleased studio and live recordings, plus a DVD with surround sound mixes, the original music videos from the album and more. The set also comes with extensive liner notes written by Tim Sommer, who signed the band to Atlantic Records in 1993.  

The band – Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld – recorded Cracked Rear View at NRG Studios in Los Angeles with producer Don Gehman. Released on July 5, 1994, the album became a musical phenomenon, topping the album charts in Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S., where it reached #1 five different times during 1995. 

The album generated four massive singles: “Hold My Hand,” “Only Wanna Be With You,” “Time,” and “Let Her Cry,” which earned Hootie & the Blowfish a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group and also saw them recognized as Best New Pop Group by the Grammy Awards.