August and Everything After
Counting Crows' 1993 debut—rootsy, literate, and aching, with "Mr. Jones" inescapable on every radio and Adam Duritz's dreads on every MTV block. The album that lived in car CD players for the rest of the decade.
Counting Crows released August and Everything After on September 14, 1993, on DGC/Geffen, with T Bone Burnett producing. The lineup—Adam Duritz, David Bryson, Charlie Gillingham, Steve Bowman, and Matt Malley—played rootsy, literate rock that cut against the grunge of the moment: organ swells, acoustic strums, and Duritz's anguished, wordy delivery.
"Mr. Jones," released as a single that December, became the breakout—a wry song about wanting to be famous that made its author exactly that, all over radio and MTV—with "Round Here" following as the album's other big hit. August and Everything After went on to be certified seven-times platinum in the US, and Duritz, dreadlocks and all, became one of the instantly recognizable faces of 90s alt-rock. The album never really left: it soundtracked car rides and dorm rooms for years, and "Mr. Jones" still drags every millennial within earshot straight back to 1994.
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Counting Crows
Adam Duritz's dreadlocked, wordy, openly wounded alt-rock band — one of the definitive sounds of 90s radio. Their 1993 debut sold over seven million copies, and Duritz spent years dismantling the very song that made them famous, recanting "Mr. Jones" and its hunger for stardom after getting exactly what he wished for.
Counting Crows — "Mr. Jones"
The breakthrough single that launched Counting Crows from small-club acoustics into MTV ubiquity — two struggling musicians daydreaming that being rock stars would make everything easier. Its central confession, "when everybody loves me, I will never be lonely," became the 90s' great be-careful-what-you-wish-for lyric: Duritz got the fame and spent years walking the song back.