Touched By Angels
Buffalo Beat
September 24, 1998
By: Stuart Green

On a beautiful summer day, at Toronto's posh Sutton Place hotel, the Goo Goo Dolls are holed up doing a press in advance of the release of their sixth album, Dizzy Up The Girl. Then years ago, it was the last place you'd expect to find the Buffalo, NY-based pop-punkers. This was a band that would routinely play their frantic sets drunk and in bare feet in some of the dingiest clubs North America has to offer.

But that was then. In 1998, the Goo Goo Dolls are bigger than ever they could ever have imagined, thanks largely to the song "Iris", a tender, lushly-orchestrated power ballad that helped Catapult the City Of angels soundtrack to number one for most of the summer. "We haven't really been feeling and effects from it because we've been in the studio working super hard." Insists singer/guitarist John Rzeznik (nee Goo). "Do I feel like Bono? No. Am I super rich? No…not yet…maybe."

After several weeks at the top of play charts and play lists, it's only a matter if time before the cash starts rolling in. Especially since the song in question has been included on their new 13-track record, a strategic move that should help move a few units. "The biggest concern was that it fit into the record and not sound like an add-on," says bassist/vocalist Robby Takac (nee Goo). "When we decided to put it on, we were going to make it a bonus track at the end, but then we decided to work it in. It comes at a really good spot on the record, and it fits, plus it was all written at the same time as everything else, so it has a similar feel." "It was a debate to put it on or not", adds Rzeznik. "On the one hand it looks like we don't have any other songs on this record that are good so you put the ringer on to sell some records. On the other hand, everybody we talked to about it, fans, and friends, told us to put it on because it's a good song and people will want it. Maybe we'll take it off on the second pressing or something." And of course, the record company will have no problem with that.