The Real Hanson Story!

They’re Putting On The H.I.T.Z!

Bop September, 1997

Hanson is the group you can’t get enough of lately-and neither can we! Not only are the boys adorable and talented-but their tunes are infectious!

There’s no escaping the trio from Tulsa! It’s a story of the homespun pop trio turning their hometown of Tulsa (and every town they visit) into Hitsville, USA! It’s almost too good to be true, but as the saying goes, hard work and perseverance pay off!

"Our mother was always singing around the house," says Taylor Hanson with a smile. "It’s kind of in our genes." To which Zac adds enthusiastically, "Our parents didn’t push us into this. This was our thing. But they helped us with it. They said, ‘I’m going to drive you where you want to go and get you what you need.’"

The Hanson story is almost too picture perfect to be believed. Their parents were part of a gospel group in the early days of their marriage, but had to give it up when dad Walker had to constantly relocate his family around the world (he was an international financier for an oil drilling company). Mom Diana, a teacher, schooled the boys at home, which allowed them time to develop their musical talents (although they didn’t pick up instruments until two years ago).

Surprisingly, the only records in the house were a series of Time-Life compilation records that stretched from the years 1957 to 1969—and they were taken along on the Hanson family’s international travels. Says New York Times "Pop Life" columnist Neil Strauss, "this may explain why the band’s light pop seems like an anomaly in a time when harder-edged rap, rock and electronic dance music are trendy." But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

Back in mid 1992, the boys started taking things a little more seriously, singing a capella at a family, school and neighborhood get-togethers. They wanted to start playing in local clubs, but they hit a snag: their ages. But that didn’t keep them from playing in parking lots outside popular nightspots. They could be heard harmonizing all over town with their a capella versions of classic oldies like "Splish Splash," "Johnny B. Goode" and "Summertime Blues."

Taylor talks about the group’s movement from being a "good ol’ local group" to taking a stab at fame and "going pro": "I think it was a natural progression because we were always singing. Our mom and dad were (musical)…they sung a lot. Our parents used to joke that they’d tell us to do the dishes and they’d come back and we’d have written a song. We didn’t even think about it—it just happened."

In fall 1994, the guys ventured to both Chicago and Nashville to record their own debut album, titled Boomerang, on Hanson Records. It featured Top 40 style pop love songs, and a cover of the Jackson 5’s early 70s hit "The Love You Save"—which, not surprisingly, started the fans’ comparison of Hanson to "Mickey J’s old group." Boomerang was followed up about a year later with MMMBop, full of rhythm and blues style songs. It was after hiring musicians to play on the MMMBop album that the boys were motivated to pick up instruments. They were not just a vocal group anymore.

In June 1995, the boys were still hoping to get some recognition outside of their hometown, and they did an intimate interview with their hometown paper, Tulsa World. The boys had just played their first real "big-time" gig at the Mayfest, a popular yearly arts festival in Tulsa in May 1995. Isaac expressed the original goals of the group: "We want to be a Boyz II Men / Ace Of Base type group where we can both dance and sing harmony. But we’re not directly patterning ourselves after anybody."

At the time, they were happy to be getting some out of town gigs that brought them a few hundred miles north of their hometown.

Things quickly accelerated. Word spread about their northern Oklahoma shows and soon they were playing all over the Midwest. They had done 200-300 shows in that part of the country.

The guys had another crucial event in their career in mid-1995 when they met their current manager Christopher Sebec at the South by Southwest convention in Austin, TX. "We were doing our little song and dance, a capella, and we said. "Can we sing for you. And then we had our boom box, and this was a stage where we sang a capella, and then we had tracks that we danced to—then it became pop rock. So we had a track of a song we had written, so we sang and danced to that, and that was how we met him," remembers Isaac.

Steve Greenberg, 36, the Mercury Records A&R v.p who signed the group last summer, remembers his first taste of Hanson. As the legend goes, the boys had been circulating tapes of Boomerang all over the music biz.

Greenberg got the tape after it had been rejected by 12 other labels who didn’t want to sign a teen pop band in today’s world of hipper-than-thou music invading the Top 40 charts. "I got this tape and loved it, but I was convinced it was fake. I was sure there was some adult pulling the strings or the vocals were manipulated and they weren’t really playing their instruments. I wasn’t going to do it. But then I saw them at a county fair in Kansas, and they played and sang just as well as they did on the record. There wasn’t an adult in sight, except their dad, who was loading up the equipment, and their mom, who was selling T-shirts."

The group was hysterically happy to sign with Mercury, especially after having had so many big-label rejections. Despite what it is commonly thought, Middle of Nowhere doesn’t contain the same material as MMMBop-although obviously "MMMBop" is the big hit off the new album.

According to the official Hanson website FAQ file page, "Mercury Records brought in several writers to assist in ’polishing’ their material (after all, this was a NATIONAL release). They included Mark Hudson, Ellen Shipley, Desmond Child, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill. These folks have written songs for Aerosmith, Belinda Carlisle, Bon Jovi and the Righteous Brothers (not together, mind you). In all, 9 of 13 tracks had help from these writers."

On March 24, 1997, the first single from the album, "MMMBop" was released—and it debuted at the number 49 spot on the Radio & Records chart on March 30. At press time, it is No. 1 on both R&R and Billboard’s singles charts. Mercury Records is so happy the boys have taken off—it’s the company first No. 1 single in years! The MMMBop video debuted at No. 16 on MTV’s Top 20 countdown, and is No. 7 as we go to print.

At an early May ’97 appearance at an LA’s CityWalk, the boys had to do a press conference with 20 reporters in attendance, and then moved on to a meet-and-greet situation where fans were supposed to line up in an orderly fashion for autographs and quick photo ops. A 42-year-old mother of a 13-year-old fan commented to a Los Angeles Times reporter on the scene that it reminded her of the height of Beatlemania. Fifteen hundred people showed up, and were cutting in front of each other in line; moms started arguing over who was first in line. The argument ended after a security guard intervened, and the band got onstage and started playing. Greenberg was along to check out the reaction the boys were getting, and he stated to the LA Times, "I personally have never seen a reaction like this to anything. More than anything, this reminds me of films that I’ve seen of the Beatles landing at Kennedy Airport having their famous press conference and having the screaming girls everywhere. But I almost dare not to say it. It’s such a precocious comparison to make, but that’s the only thing I can think of that reminds me of this." (Interestingly enough, Hanson dislikes being compared to the Fab Four—when Isaac overheard Greenberg’s Beatles-related comments, he looked up and said, "Don’t go there.")

Now they have girls screaming "I love you!" into their answering machines. Said Taylor to Tulsa World, "You can’t help liking it. But some of them are just so fanatical, and they scream so much you just can’t talk to them." They have appeared on numerous talks and variety shows in the past few months, including The Jenny McCarthy Show, Late Night With David Letterman, Today, This Morning, Regis & Kathie Lee. MTV airplay aside, their official TV debut was on the Rosie O’Donnell Show in early May.

Now the boys are talking of touring and movies—and they want to work with other artists in terms of performing on their records, songwriting and producing. The sky’s the limit for Hanson, and with each new day and each new project, they learn new things about each other, and take in cultural scenes in the places they go. They’ve been to New Orleans, LA and New York in the past year (they have always wanted to visit those towns). Concludes Taylor with a smile, "We’ve seen a lot of cool places, but every different place has it’s own thing. We’ve really enjoyed being in New York. We had a whole two-day tour—(and) walked up the Statue of Liberty."

They are enjoying the large crowds they draw, even if it seemed scary at first. Isaac explains that Hanson is doing it’s best not to let themselves get nervous in ANY situation. His philosophy is: "A new experience can get you kind of nervous, but once you get out there, it’s no big deal."