Counting Crows is a rock band originating from Berkeley, California. The group gained popularity in 1994 following the release of its debut album August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones". The band's influences include Van Morrison, R.E.M., Nirvana, Bob Dylan, and The Band. They received a 2004 Academy Award nomination for the song "Accidentally in Love" due to its inclusion in the film Shrek 2.
Origin of the name
The band took its name from a divination rhyme about the crow, heard by Duritz in the film Signs of Life. The rhyme is used at the end of the song "A Murder of One" on the album August and Everything After: "Well I dreamt I saw you walking up a hillside in the snow / Casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there, counting crows / One for sorrow, two for joy / Three for girls and four for boys / Five for silver, six for gold / Seven for a secret never to be told." In the poem, the act of counting crows is particularly useless. Duritz reveals that a name is just a name, and, with that, is useless and can be anything. This recalls a traditional rhyme: "One crow means sorrow, two crows mean joy, three crows a wedding, four crows a boy, five crows mean silver, six crows mean gold, seven crows a secret that's never been told." In the United Kingdom, the rhyme is well known but uses magpies rather than crows. A popular superstition states that if one sees a single magpie, one should greet it to deflect the "sorrow".
Success with "Mr. Jones"
From the beginning, Counting Crows focused on performing live. The band's debut album August and Everything After, produced by T-Bone Burnett, was released in the autumn of 1993. The band toured extensively in 1993 and 1994, both as headliners and in support of artists such as Cracker, the Cranberries, Suede, Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Jellyfish, and Midnight Oil. The first single, "Mr. Jones," refers to The Himalayans bassist (and Duritz's childhood friend) Marty Jones and Kenney Dale Johnson, the drummer of Silvertone (Chris Isaak's band), describing the desire of working musicians to make it big and the fantasies they entertain about what this might bring. In December 1993, MTV began playing the video for the song. It was an unexpected hit, drawing massive radio play and launching the band into stardom. August and Everything After became the fastest-selling album since Nirvana's Nevermind. In 1994 the band appeared on Saturday Night Live and Late Show with David Letterman, and toured with The Rolling Stones. The album sold 7 million copies, but success took a toll on the band; drummer Steve Bowman left, and Duritz suffered a widely-reported nervous breakdown, which was not his first.
Band members
Current members
- Adam Duritz (Vocals, piano) (1991–present)
- David Bryson (guitar) (1991–present)
- Dan Vickrey (guitar) (1994–present)
- David Immerglück (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar) (1993–1999 (session), 1999–present (full-time))
- Charlie Gillingham (keyboards, accordion) (1992–present)
- Jim Bogios (drums) (2002–present)
- Millard Powers (bass guitar, upright double bass, piano, vocals) (2005–present)
Former members
- Ben Ulrich (drums) (1992)
- Marty Jones (bass guitar) (1991-1992)
- Lydia Holly (keyboards) (1991-1992)
- Toby Hawkins (drums) (1991-1992)
- Steve Bowman (drums) (1992-1994)
- Ben Mize (drums) (1994-2002)
- Matt Malley (bass guitar) (1992-2005)
Discography
- 1993: August and Everything After
- 1996: Recovering The Satellites
- 1999: This Desert Life
- 2002: Hard Candy
- 2003: Films about ghosts (The best of...)
- 2008: Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
Origin San Francisco, California, United States
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Years active 1991–present
Label(s) Geffen
Website www.countingcrows.com
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