Name (song)

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“Name”
Single by Goo Goo Dolls
from the album A Boy Named Goo
Released September 26, 1995
Format
Recorded
Genre Alternative Rock
Length 4 min 30 s
Label Metal Blade Records/Warner Bros. Records
Producer
Goo Goo Dolls singles chronology
"Long Way Down"
(1995)
"Name"
(1995)
"Only One"
(1996)

"Name" is a single from the Goo Goo Dolls' album, A Boy Named Goo. The song, the band's first hit, topped both the US Modern Rock and the US Mainstream Rock charts, and reached as high as number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Until the release of Dizzy Up the Girl 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 rawer with a very stripped down production compared to the original 1995 recording.

[edit] Song composition

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 11/30/98. "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'.". In a recent quote, he stated the following. "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"

[edit] Chart positions

Chart Position
US Billboard Hot 100 #5
US Modern Rock Tracks #1
US Mainstream Rock Tracks #1
Adult Top 40 #2
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(band)
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single
October 28, 1995 - November 11, 1995
Succeeded by
"My Friends" by Red Hot Chili Peppers