I love learning how musicians are influenced by each other. One interesting display of this is which songs certain artists choose to cover in live and/or album performances. In going through some live recordings today, I found that Hootie and the Blowfish have covered quite a few artists from a surprisingly diverse spectrum. I knew about the covers on their album “Scattered, Smothered, and Covered”, but that’s just a portion. What got me started with seeing them in concert a last month and hearing a several songs but not being able to place the original artist. Below is a list of every cover song I’ve come across performed by Hootie & the Blowfish. Many of these have only been performed live but some have appeared on the Scattered, Covered, and Smothered and The Best of Hootie & the Blowfish (1993 Thru 2003) albums.
For anyone who has enjoyed Hootie in the past, I highly recommend their latest album Looking for Lucky. It’s their best studio effort in the past 5 years and a frequent listen for me right now.
| Song Title | Originally performed by |
| I Go Blind | 54-40 |
| Mandy | Barry Manilow |
| Use Me | Bill Withers |
| No Diggity | Blackstreet |
| Goodbye Girl | Bread |
| Growin� Up | Bruce Springsteen |
| The Rain Song | Continental Drifters |
| Freaks of The Industry | Digital Underground |
| Frances | Dillon Fence |
| Renaissance Eyes | Don Dixon |
| Black Water | Doobie Brothers |
| Keep Your Hands To Yourself | Georgia Satellites |
| Christmas This Year | Gerald Duncan (formerly of the Accelerators) |
| Let Me Be Your Man | Kim Richey |
| That Thing | Lauren Hill |
| Hey Hey What Can I Do | Led Zeppelin |
| Ride Wit Me | Nelly |
| Let Me Be Your Man | New Grass Revival |
| Freedom�s Child | originally appeared in the Broadway musical The Civil War |
| Driver 8 | R.E.M. |
| It�s The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) | REM |
| Dream Baby | Roy Orbison |
| Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want | Smiths |
| Gin And Juice | Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| Almost Home | The Reivers |
| Araby | The Reivers |
| I Hope That I Don�t Fall In Love With You | Tom Waits |
| Add It Up | Violent Femmes |
| Deep Dark Truthful Mirror | Elvis Costello |
| Sweet And Shiny Eyes | Bonnie Raitt |
| Get Down On It | Kool and the Gang |
Also, check out CoversProject.com for some interesting cover song cross-reference.
I’ve also seen them perform these covers live:
losing my religion – rem
I should have told her – vinx
mustang sally – wilson picket
pretty comprehensive list!
i’ve been trying to find these guys doing ‘mandy’ forever – i’ve heard it only once but its one of the best covers of that song i’ve heard. lemme know what album u found that on!! i need a copy!!
Sadly, I don’t know where to find that either. I haven’t seen any official or unofficial recording that includes Mandy. If you ever run across anything, let me know where you found it.
I just saw them last night great show! they closed out the night with a great cover of Oasis’ champagne supernova
Hootie et al covered Get Down On It by Kool and the Gang on a New Years Eve Gala. I am very interesting in finding a copy of that. Do you know where I could find it?
Unfortunately, the trading scene for Hootie concerts is pretty-much non-existent. Your best bet would be the fan forum on Hootie.com.
Does anybody know the song that Hootie and the Blowfish do that counts by 3 in the song? I saw them in concert recently and it is a great song. I’m thinking it might be a cover.
that’s part of their cover of Love the One You’re With…it’s in the middle of the song along w/3rd Bass’ ‘The Cactus’. I’ve got it on a bootleg album.
The number counting comes from 3 is a Magic Number from the Schoolhouse Rocks series
Heres that one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA69pmhrBiE
The actual lyrics that they sing are from this song.
De La Soul’s 3 is the Magic number, which is derived from the first song. HBF sings the second verse which comes in at the 1:08 mark here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0irL1M15DH8