The Cranberries
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The Cranberries |
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The Cranberries are an Irish alternative rock band that rose to mainstream popularity in the 1990s. Though not officially disbanded, they have been on hiatus since 2003.
Band members
- Dolores O'Riordan - vocals, guitars, keyboards
- Noel Hogan - electric and acoustic guitars
- Mike Hogan - bass
- Fergal Lawler - drums and percussions
History
Origins
Noel and Mike Hogan, two brothers from Limerick, formed the band with drummer Fergal Lawler in 1990. The band was originally named The Cranberry Saw Us, a pun on cranberry sauce. The lead singer at that time was a friend of theirs named Niall Quinn, who had an extravagant taste for composing and song names, such as "My Grandma drowned in a fountain in Lourdes", "I was always all ways" and "Throw Me Down A Big Stairs". When he left the band, Dolores O'Riordan, who was a friend of Niall's girlfriend at the time, auditioned and won the role of lead singer. She quickly demonstrated her lyrical ability when the band handed her a demo of a melody they had been working on. She took the demo home and returned with a full set of lyrics for it the next day, the song (which later became one of the band's biggest hits) was then given the name "Linger".
Their homemade demo tape did well locally and the band soon recorded a demo tape which they sold in record stores throughout Ireland. After the original run of 300 copies sold out, the group truncated their name to the Cranberries and sent another demo tape, which featured early versions of both "Linger" and "Dreams," to record companies throughout the UK. The tape was made at Xeric studios, which was run by Pearse Gilmore, who would later become their manager. At the time the tape was made, all of the members were still in their late teens.
The demo tape earned the attention of both the UK press and record industry and there soon was a bidding war between major British record labels. Eventually, the group signed with Island Records whose other famous Irish contract is with U2. The Cranberries headed into the studio with Gilmore as their producer to record their first single, "Uncertain." The title proved to be prophetic, as the band did indeed sound ill at ease on the single, leading to poor reviews in the press, in addition to tensions between the group and Gilmore. Before they were scheduled to record their debut in 1992, the Cranberries discovered that Gilmore had signed a secret deal with Island to improve his studios. The tensions within the band became so great they nearly broke up. Instead, the band severed all relations with Gilmore, hired Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records as their new manager, and hired Stephen Street, who had previously worked with The Smiths, as their new producer.
The Cranberries' debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, was released in the spring of 1993, followed by a single of "Dreams." Neither the album or the single gained much attention, nor did a second single, "Linger". In the summer and fall of 1993, the band toured the United States, opening for The The and Suede, respectively; frequently, the Cranberries were given a friendlier reception than either of the headliners. The strong live shows led to MTV putting "Linger" into heavy rotation. By the end of the year, the single was on its way to becoming a crossover hit. Eventually, the single reached number eight on the US charts, while the album went double platinum. Everybody Else and "Linger" began to take off in Britain in early 1994; the album eventually reached number one during the summer.
O'Riordan married the band's tour manager, Don Burton, in a much-publicized ceremony in July, 1994. The marriage, as well as the group's videos, emphasized the singer as the focal point of the band. O'Riordan's position in the group continued to rise with the fall release of the group's second album, No Need to Argue. Boasting a slightly harder, more streamlined sound, yet still produced by Stephen Street, the record debuted at number six on the US charts and eventually outsold its predecessor; within a year it went triple platinum, spawning the number one modern rock hit "Zombie" and the number 11 "Ode to My Family." In 1995, they continued with a tour, and they released two more singles "I Can't Be With You" and "Ridiculous Thoughts". To date the album has sold very well. It went diamond in Canada, Switzerland, and went seven times platinum in the United States (seven million copies sold). In early 1995, they also recorded an "MTV Unplugged" performance (in New York), where they played nine songs. The performance was not released as an album, but can be found in some band's bootlegs.
Mid-90s
During the tour for No Need to Argue, rumors began to circulate that O'Riordan was going to leave the band to pursue a solo career, which the band vehemently denied.
Nevertheless, the rumors persisted until the band began recording their third album with producer Bruce Fairbairn, who had previously worked with Bon Jovi and Aerosmith. The resulting album, To the Faithful Departed, was a tougher, more rock-oriented album. It did not meet the critical acclaim of its predecessors. Q Magazine even placed the album in their '50 Worst Albums of All Time' in 2006 [1]. Upon its spring 1996 release, the album entered the charts at #2 UK and #4 US, but its first single, "Salvation," failed to become a hit on par with "Zombie," "Linger," or "Ode to My Family." It did, however, spend 4 weeks at the top of the Billboard Modern Rock chart. The album only went double platinum, which was somewhat disappointing in light of its two predecessors' multi-platinum status. The band released "Free To Decide" as the second single from the album, but it only reached #33 in the UK, and did not make the top 40 in the Billboard charts. During the fall of 1996, the group canceled their Australian and European tour, sparking another round of rumors that O'Riordan was about to launch a solo career. In early 1997 "When You're Gone" was released as a single in the United States, reaching #22 on the Billboard Top 40, thereby becoming one of the most successful singles of the band to date in the US.
In 1999, the group released Bury the Hatchet. The first single "Promises" was released in February, backed by a video made by French Director Oliver Dahn (who previously worked with them on "Salvation").
The album went on sale in April 1999 and reached #7 in the UK and #13 in the US, where it went gold. The album's most successful single was "Promises", which peaked in the UK at #12, and in the United States at #34. The second single was "Animal Instinct", which didn't reach the Top 40 in UK. The third and fourth singles were "Just My Imagination" and "You & Me", respectively. The group started a world tour in April 1999 and it finished in July 2000. It was the biggest and most successful tour of the Cranberries' career. The album has sold over 3,500,000 copies to date (their fourth-best selling album), with impressive sales in countries like France, Italy, Spain and Taiwan.
The tour brought them back to Ireland for their first date in four years, when they performed at Millstreet in County Cork. As the tour rolled on, the band released "Bury The Hatchet - The Complete Sessions", a double CD featuring B-sides as well as live tracks taken from a live show in Paris.
2000s
In October 2001, the album Wake Up and Smell the Coffee was released. One of the band's longtime fans, producer Stephen Street, had returned. The album debuted at #46 in the U.S. charts and #61 in the UK (the band's least successful album) but helped them to revive their career in the U.S. The first single was "Analyse", which didn't reach the Top 75 in the UK, becoming one of their least successful singles. In January 2002, they released the second single "Time Is Ticking Out", and some months later another one, "This Is The Day". Neither song reached the UK singles charts. The album has sold over 1,500,000 copies to date. They completed a world tour from February to October 2002.
The following year a greatest-hits compilation entitled Stars - The Best of 1992 - 2002 was released, along with a DVD of music videos.
The three non-single tracks appearing on Stars are "Daffodil Lament" (voted by the fans as the top non-single from the band's five albums), "New New York", and "Stars", the latter two tracks both previously unreleased. "New New York" is, as would be expected, a reaction to September 11th. It reached #20 in the U.K albums charts. The song "Stars" was released as a single from that album. They won an award in Taiwan, in 2002, for best selling international band with the album "Stars". In that country, they have been successful with every album they have released to date. They started a tour in late October 2002, which ended in December of the same year. It was their shortest tour; they went only to Europe and Asia. In mid 2003, the band played a few tour dates, some with the Rolling Stones (The Cranberries were the opening act), and some alone. They performed new songs during those dates ("Astral Projection" and "In It Together").
Time for a break
In 2004, The Cranberries announced they were taking some time to pursue individual careers. Earlier that year, O'Riordan had sung the title track to the movie The Passion of the Christ, "Ave Maria" and composed a song for the movie Evilenko (with Malcolm McDowell). Her solo album "Are You Listening?" is planned for release on May 8, 2007. Noel Hogan's new project is Mono Band.
The Cranberries have decided to put the next album on hold after more than a dozen years of relentless touring and promotion, which saw them rack up album sales in excess of 38 million and play to hundreds of thousands of fans around the globe.
Recent Appearances
The band made a cameo appearance as the wedding band in the Adam Sandler movie Click.
Discography
Albums
Studio
- Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (April 1993) UK #1, US #18 (ww sales 7,600,000)
- No Need to Argue (September 1994) UK #2, US #6 (ww sales 16,700,000)
- To the Faithful Departed (April 1996) UK #2, US #4 (ww sales 6,200,000)
- Bury the Hatchet (April 1999) UK #7, US #13 (ww sales 3,300,000)
- Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (October 2001) UK #61, US #46 (ww sales 1,300,000)
Miscellaneous combinations / limited editions 1,800,000 approx.
Compilations
- "Bury the Hatchet - The Complete Sessions" (2000) – 26 track release
- "Stars - The Best of 1992 - 2002" (September 2002) – UK #20
- "Treasure Box - The Complete Sessions 1992-1999" 4 albums remastered
Live
- "Doors And Windows" (1995) (multimedia disc)
- "In Concert at the BBC" (1994) – limited UK release
- "In Concert: New Rock #94-44, disc 2 of 2" (1994)
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot 100 | Top 40 Main. | Mains. Rock | Modern Rock | Adult Top 40 | UK | France | Irish Singles Chart | |||
| 1991 | "Uncertain" | Uncertain EP | ||||||||
| 1992 | "Dreams" | 42 | 33 | 15 | 27 | 9 | Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? | |||
| 1993 | "Linger"* | 8 | 7 | 4 | 14 | 3 | ||||
| 1994 | "Zombie" | 18 | 32 | 1(6) | 14 | 1 | 3 | No Need to Argue | ||
| "Ode to My Family" | 35 | 11 | 26 | 4 | 16 | |||||
| 1995 | "I Can't Be with You" | 23 | 24 | 21 | ||||||
| "Ridiculous Thoughts" | 14 | 20 | 23 | |||||||
| 1996 | "Salvation" | 33 | 25 | 1(4) | 13 | 13 | 8 | To the Faithful Departed | ||
| "Free to Decide" | 16 | 8 | 23 | 33 | 43 | 28 | ||||
| "When You're Gone" | 22 | 27 | 17 | 26 | 21 | |||||
| 1997 | "Hollywood" | |||||||||
| 1999 | "Promises" | 12 | 12 | 32 | 19 | Bury the Hatchet | ||||
| "Animal Instinct" | 54 | 55 | ||||||||
| "Just My Imagination" | 71 | |||||||||
| 2000 | "You and Me" | |||||||||
| 2001 | "Analyse" | 26 | 89 | 57 | 28 | Wake Up and Smell the Coffee | ||||
| 2002 | "Time Is Ticking Out" | |||||||||
| "This Is the Day" | ||||||||||
| "Stars" | Stars - The Best of 1992 - 2002 | |||||||||
* - "Linger" also reached #18 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
DVDs and videos
- "Beneath The Skin - Live In Paris"
- "Beneath The Skin - Live In Paris - 2"
- "Stars - The Best of 1992 - 2002" (2002)
- "20th Century Masters Collection: The Cranberries"
- "Live - Live in Astoria" (VHS)
- "Live - Live In Astoria" (DVD)