Hanson (made up of Isaac, Taylor, & Zachary Hanson) is a very talented group of guys from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I guess every story has to start somewhere, so lets start from the begging. Well, on second thought, that would take too long, so lets start when they were very young......
Well, it all started with Hanson's parents, (Walker & Diana) who have a history of music. In their highschool years they sang in a gospel group called the Horizons. Walker has a job with an oil company, and in the boy's early years, it took them all over the world. In the late 1980's, the Hanson family lived in places such as Trinidad & Tobabgo, Equador, & Venezuela. With them, they took a compilation tapes of late 50's. early 60's rock 'n roll. They moved back to Tulsa in 1989.
It seems that their parents musical influence and the music that they took with them was good for the children, because the three oldest boys, (that would be the 3 we all know and love) started singing more and more, and soon began writing their own songs (note: Isaacs first song was "Rain Falling Down", it was written by him in the thrid grade). Back then they were singing a cappella, that is until Isaac (Ike) started what would turn out to be five years of classical piano lessons. Taylor (Tay) and Zachary (Zac) followed shortly after, and although the all took to the instrument naturally, Tay caught on quickest. None of them had really thought about performing in front of people, until their fathers company Christmas party in 1991. Hanson decided to perform in front of everyone that night, and although they had no instruments, only their wonderful 3 part harmonies, they got a response of fingers snapping and people singing along. I guess that experience fueled the boys to do more, because thats exactly what they did.
In 1992, they started performing in front of audiences a capella (keep in mind, they still didn't play any instruments well enough to use). They sang 50's and 60's songs at small gigs, in which they rarely got paid for. But of course, one gig always leads to another. Their big step was in May of 1992. The boys got a spot performing on the community stage in Tulsa's annual Mayfest. They performed for close to an hour, singing a total of 15 songs. No one really knows how or when it happened, or even if Mayfest had anything to do with it, but somewhere during that time period, the Hanson brother decided that they wanted to become famous! Their parents were behind them 100%. This meant working even harder. The boy's decided to revise their act, they added dancing and occasionally, either Ike or Tay played the piano. They also began singing with background tapes. The main revision was that they took their act to the road, often as far as they could. Being the boys were homeschooled, missing classes wasn't a problem, so they performed all over the midwest. With over 50 Hanson origonals, and an ever-increasing amount of fans, The Hanson Brothers decided to give the fans what they wanted, a Hanson cd or cassette to take home with them after the show. So with the help of their parents, the boys made an released an independant album. It was titled Boomerang.
Eventually, the brothers decided that they were ready to add more instruments to their act. Tay stuck with the piano, but being that there was no keyboard in the Hanson's home, he had to borrow one froma friend. Ike followed in his fathers footsteps, choosing guitar for his instrument. Zac kinda just got stuck with the drums. But Zac has his own veiw, "the secret is, no one else's arms were long enough. I was the only one who could play the drums." =)
In may of 1996, the brothers released another independant album titled MMMBop. They sold copies of it at all of their gigs and soon, they started to gain interest from record companies. In June of 1996, Hanson was playing for the state fair in Coffeyville, Kansas. Steve Greenburg (the A & R at Mercury Records) went down to Coffeyville to hear them sing and signed them the same day to Mercury records! And from there it's HISTORY!!!!!!
