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The Spin Doctors' origins can be traced back to the late 1980s in New York City, originally as a band called Trucking Company, consisting of Canadian guitarist Eric Schenkman, John Popper, and later Chris Barron, who was a high school friend of Popper. With a name change to Spin Doctors, as well as the addition of Aaron Comess and Mark White, the classic lineup was in place by the spring of 1989 and in 1991 the band signed with major label Epic Records/Sony Music.
The debut album 'Pocket Full Of Kryptonite' was released in the same year to huge success in both the US & the UK. Despite being ignored initially on its release, the band continued to tour extensively and build up their grass roots fan base. In the summer of 1992 singles such as 'Little Miss Can't Be Wrong' began to get radio play and was featured on MTV. The sales continued and the album eventually peaked within the US top five and has sold over five million copies to date, holding a five times platinum certification.
The next album 'Turn It Upside Down' didn't match the success of its predecessor yet still managed to sell two million copies worldwide. The band promoted the album with another huge world tour lasting three months and including stops at Glastonbury and Woodstock where the band played to some of the largest crowds of their career. Original guitarist Eric Schenkman left the band shortly after the release of 'Turn It Upside Down' by walking offstage during a gig in California. This was the first of a number of inter-band disputes which affected the following releases, the third album 'Here Comes The Bride' only sold 75,000 copies in the US compared to one million for the previous album. The Spin Doctors remained inactive as a band until September 2001, when news about the closing of legendary NYC venue Wetlands sparked the original four members to reunite. They continued to record, release and tour new music after this yet have failed to recreate the commercial successes of their first two albums.
It’s often surprising to see how many huge bands from the nineties, who then faded critically and commercially, are still a going concern in 2014, but I’m not entirely sure why; after all, Oasis continued to dine out on Definitely Maybe and What’s the Story Morning Glory for the best part of two decades. Spin Doctors are another such band, having released a debut album in 1991, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, that went five times platinum in the U.S. and spawned huge radio hits in the form of ‘Two Princes’ and ‘Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong’. They followed it up solidly, too, with sophomore effort Turn It Upside Down going platinum, too, but since then, they’ve retained only a core cult fanbase as their sound dated. Even so, it hasn’t stopped them from continuing to write and record, with their latest LP, If the River Was Whiskey, released last year, taking them back to a rootsier blues sound than they’d previously flirted with. They still play live frequently, too, with their current U.S. tour seeing them dedicate equal prominence on the setlist to each of their six albums, with a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain?’ thrown in for good measure. They played an intimate tour of the UK as recently as May of 2011, too, proving that they still have transatlantic appeal; whether they’re simply a nostalgia band or still have something left in the tank creatively, though, is still for them to prove.
Joeg_67
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