DOOKIE
Dookie is the third studio album by American punk rock band Green Day, released on February 1, 1994, through Reprise Records. It was the band’s first collaboration with producer Rob Cavallo and its major record label debut. Dookie became a worldwide commercial success, peaking at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 and charting in seven countries. The album helped propel Green Day, and even punk rock music into mainstream popularity. Dookie was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America for the shipment of 10 million copies. The album has garnered considerable acclaim, from its release to present day, winning a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1995 and being ranked No. 193 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. As of 2014, Dookie is the band’s best-selling album with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide. (More from Wikipedia)
Green Day was the lead punk revival band of the early 1990’s and actually have had much greater success than any of the original punk rock bands, and most of the new wave bands as well. Their first major-label release (and third album), Dookie (1994) was an immediate worldwide smash, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart, and sold well throughout the 1990’s, with total sales of 20 million albums. Their 2004 rock-opera album American Idiot was the basis of a hit Broadway show a few years later. In all, Green Day has sold more than 85 million albums and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, their first year of eligibility.
Like most, I was introduced to Green Day with Dookie. I imagine that I found out about them through their music videos on MTV and/or VH1, as the rock-video era was winding down. As Wikipedia notes: “Dookie produced five hit singles for the band: ‘Longview’, ‘When I Come Around’, ‘Basket Case’, a re-recorded version of ‘Welcome to Paradise’, and the radio-only single ‘She’.” The whole album rocks though, not just the hits.
(June 2017)
