Name (song)

"Name"
Single by Goo Goo Dolls
from the album A Boy Named Goo
Released	September 26, 1995
Format	CD single, cassette single
Recorded	1995
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	4:30 (album version) 4:03 (single edit)
Label	Metal Blade/Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	John Rzeznik
Goo Goo Dolls singles chronology
"Flat Top" (1995) "Name" (1995) "Naked" (1996)

"Name" is the title of a song recorded by the Goo Goo Dolls. It was released in September 1995 as the third single from the album, A Boy Named Goo. The song, the band's first hit, topped both the US Modern Rock chart and the US Album Rock chart, and reached as high as number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Until the release of the Dizzy Up the Girl album three years later, "Name" was by far the band's most popular and well known song.

The band re-recorded this song for their compilation album, Greatest Hits Volume One: The Singles. The new version is much more raw with a very stripped down production compared to the original 1995 recording.

Track listing

1. "Name" - 4:30
2. "Nothing Can Change You" - 3:14
3. "I Want to Destroy You" - 2:35

German promo single

1. "Name" (Single edit)

Cassette single

1. "Name"
2. "Burnin' Up"

Song composition

Considered an Alternative group prior to the single's release, "Name" crossed over to Pop and Adult Contemporary radio, greatly increasing the band's fan base, but alienating some core listeners who were used to their harder sound.

According to lead singer Johnny Rzeznik it happened "quite accidentally". Rzeznik explained how he came up with the songs' unusual tuning, D-A-E-A-E-E, while performing at a KFOG private radio show on November 1998. "It was weird, I was just sitting on my couch randomly twisting the tuning pegs, and I couldn't figure out what notes the guitar was tuned to, so I had to grab my tuner to find out, and then I jotted them down on a post it." Rzeznik then proceeded to say "I just sat there and let my fingers play the fretboard openly, and that is what became the progression of 'Name'."

The song's lyrics refer to Rzeznik's sisters who raised him; both his parents died when he was young and his father was an alcoholic. The line, "We're grown up orphans who never knew their names" reflects his past, but Rzeznik also claimed "I wrote this song about feeling like I was wasting time, and my life; just wasting everything, and this song is what came out of it."

Chart positions

Peak positions

Chart (1995)	Peak position
Canadian RPM Singles Chart	2
Canadian RPM Alternative 30	1
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40	2
Chart (1996)	Peak position
New Zealand Singles Chart	43
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	5

Year-end charts

Chart (1996)	Position
Canadian RPM Singles Chart	24
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	24

Preceded by "Comedown" by Bush	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single October 7, 1995	Succeeded by "Hand in My Pocket" by Alanis Morissette
Preceded by "Lump" by The Presidents of the United States of America	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single October 28 - November 11, 1995	Succeeded by "My Friends" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Preceded by "Hard as a Rock" by AC/DC	Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks number-one single November 4 – December 2, 1995	Succeeded by "My Friends" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Preceded by Lump by The Presidents of the United States of America	Canadian RPM Alternative 30 number-one single October 9, 1995	Succeeded by "Geek Stink Breath" by Green Day

See also

• List of number-one mainstream rock hits (United States)
• Number one modern rock hits of 1995
• List of RPM Rock/Alternative number-one singles (Canada)