Hanson

For the FTSE 100 company see Hanson plc.

Hanson, a pop/rock band beginning in the 1990s, was formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma by brothers Clarke Isaac Hanson (b. November 17, 1980), Jordan Taylor Hanson (b. March 14, 1983) and Zachary Walker Hanson (b. October 22, 1985).

Hanson is a melodic band that evokes memories of 1980s pop.

Discography

Albums:

Middle of Nowhere

Release date: May 6, 1997 Track Listing: Thinking of you, MMMBop, Weird, Speechless, Where's the Love, Yearbook, Look at You, Lucy, I Will Come to You, A Minute Without You, Madeline, and With you in Your Dreams + bonus track Man From Milwaukee.

Three Car Garage, Snowed In, Live from Albertane, This Time Around, Underneath

Music Career

As young children, the Hansons lived in Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador and Venezuela due to their father's job. There, they grew up listening to a Time/Life compilation of music from the 1950s and 1960s, along with the Latin American music that surrounded them, influencing their musical tastes.

The band, which was originally called "The Hanson Brothers", started out as three kids who sang a capella and recorded tapes with oldies like Rockin' Robin, Splish Splash and Johnny B. Goode, as well as a piece of their very own material. Their first performance as a professional group took place at the May Fest Arts Festival in Tulsa, in 1992.

Later on, Isaac picked up a second hand guitar, Zac borrowed an old set of drums and Taylor became the keyboard player of what turned into a garage band. Two independent albums later, they found themselves at the South By Southwest musical festival for unsigned music bands. There, they were promptly signed by manager Christopher Sabec, who took them to Mercury Records, where they became instant worldwide sensations with the release of their first album, Middle of Nowhere.

The album's first single, "MMMBop" debuted at number 16 in the United States, reaching #1 in both the US and the UK, #2 in CAN and staying over two months in the top spot in AUS. The group was heavily featured in teen magazines, such as Tiger Beat, and found a wide following among teen and pre-teen girls. The album's second single, "Where's the Love?" followed "MMMBop" to the top of the charts.

Their first album's worlwide success was registered in "Tulsa, Tokyo & the Middle of Nowhere", an 82min. tape with home-videos, interviews, videoclips and live perfomances. Since then, follow up albums have failed to match the success of Middle of Nowhere; they were caught up in the backlash against boy bands, and faced increased competition from market powerhouses like The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

Hanson released a new album, This Time Around, in May 2000. They toured through the summer and fall of 2000.

Taylor Hanson married Natalie Anne Bryant on June 8th 2002. Natalie gave birth to their son Jordan Ezra Hanson on October 31st 2002; and their daughter, Penelope Anne, on April 19, 2005.

The brothers left their record label, Island Def Jam, and now work under their own label, 3CG Records. The band toured during the summer and fall of 2003 in support of an acoustic CD entitled Underneath Acoustic, which was comprised of acoustic versions of songs from their forthcoming release, Underneath. The tour culminated in a November 2003 performance at the prestigious Carnegie Hall.

The first single from Underneath was Penny & Me, whose video featured The O.C.'s Samaire Armstrong. Penny & Me reached number 2 on Billboard's Top 200 Singles Chart.

Lost Without Each Other was the second single from the Underneath album. The video for this song was filmed in Boston and also includes live footage from concerts. P.R. Brown directed the video.

Underneath was released on April 20th, 2004 and the following week debuted at number 1 on Billboard's Independent Album Chart and number 25 on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart, making Underneath one of the most successful independent albums of all time. Only a few artists such as Prince and Ani DiFranco have released a top 25 self-released album.

Hanson toured the US throughout the summer of 2004, and continued their tour through Europe and Asia that fall.

Hanson will be releasing a documentary entitled Strong Enough to Break, directed by Ashley Greyson that chronicals the struggles the brothers experienced while on the Island Def Jam label and the success of 3CG records.

More information on http://www.hanson.net

Rolling Stone Magazine and MTV, [1] (http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2000/rsmtv100.htm), listed their song MMMBop as the 28th greatest song of all time in 2000.