Middle Of Everywhere: Zac, Taylor and Issac
By Danielle Stankowski, Music Axis special correspondent
"Mmm bop, ba duba dop/Ba du bop, ba duba dop/Ba du bop, ba duba dop/Ba du"
With those four nonsensical lines, three young brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma brought fun back to pop music, and in the process made a household name for themselves. The song? "MmmBop." The band? Hanson. Their album Middle of Nowhere, was full of infectious, bouncy pop-rock and three-part harmonizing, a sound rooted in the soul and rock 'n' roll sounds of artists from the '50s, '60s and '70s like Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys and the Jackson 5. Within months, Middle of Nowhere had become a hit around the world, and Isaac, Taylor and Zac were seemingly everywhere--radio, MTV, Nickelodeon, a zillion magazine covers, TV shows like "Saturday Night Live," loads of websites, and even a series of "Where's your mustache?" milk ads. Hanson has made it.
Now Hanson is back with a cool new music video for their song "Weird," and, even better, another album out in just a couple weeks called Three Car Garage. Subtitled The Independent Recordings 1995 To 1996, this album isn't exactly "new," even though you might not have heard it before. Three Car Garage includes the best of Hanson's original independent (now out of print collectible) albums Boomerang and Mmmbop, including the original versions of "Mmmbop," "Thinking Of You" and "With You In Your Dreams," will allow us to hear what Hanson sounded like in the couple of years before they became world-renowned superstars. To promote the album, Hanson will be performing live on the "David Letterman" and "Rosie O'Donnell" television shows in May and doing a tour across the United States this summer.
It's not easy being an international superstar--and when you're a kid, it can be even harder. But the Hanson brothers seem to be handling it all pretty well. That's probably due to their close family ties--their mother homeschools them and their dad travels with the group and unofficially manages the band. It also helps that the Hansons have a genuine love of performing their classic brand of pop music for their adoring fans--who shower them with love and affection everywhere they go, from Ireland to Japan to Australia.
"It's just so cool that all these people are having fun and dancing or clapping to your music," an enthusiastic Isaac told Entertainment Weekly last year as Hanson ascended record sales charts around the world. Now it's time to dance again. How does that song go? Oh yeah...
"Mmm bop, ba duba dop/Ba du bop, ba duba dop/Ba du bop, ba duba dop/Ba du"