Happy Birthday: Adam Fredric Duritz (born August 1, 1964) is an American singer, best known as the frontman for the rock band Counting Crows, for which he serves as a founding member and main composer. Since its founding in 1991, Counting Crows has sold over 20 million records, released seven studio albums that have been certified gold or platinum, and been nominated for two Grammy Awards and an Academy Award.
Duritz has recorded solo material of his own and has collaborated with other musical acts. He has also founded two record labels, E Pluribus Unum and Tyrannosaurus Records. His work scoring music for film earned an award from BMI for co-writing the song "Accidentally in Love" for the movie Shrek 2.
Duritz and producer/guitarist David Bryson formed Counting Crows in San Francisco in 1991. When Gary Gersh of Geffen Records heard the band's demo tape, he was "blown away". A bidding war between nine different record labels broke out in February 1992. In April, the band—which, by that time, included other members—"signed a deal with Gersh and Geffen believed to be so lucrative that industry wags dubbed them Accounting Crows".
The band's first album, August and Everything After, charted within the top five of the Billboard 200, and the single "Mr. Jones" (1993) was a number-one hit in Canada. After the band performed as the music guest on Saturday Night Live, "Mr. Jones" jumped 40 spots in the charts. The album has been certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Six of the band's albums have charted on the Billboard 200 and four have been certified gold or platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Counting Crows was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1994. The band also received a 2004 Academy Award nomination for the song "Accidentally in Love", which was included in the film Shrek 2.
[My Uni friend introduced me to Counting Crows - and Rush... and U2.... and for several years they became my favourite band and I bought (or downloaded) everything they produced. I was lucky enough to see them perform live both at Glastonbury in 2000 - the reason we went - and at Cardiff Arena some years later. LOVE it and still love them.]
2 comments:
I'm 99% sure I found the Crows through WB's "Roswell" show. One of the characters, Max, was a fan of them. The author of the original Roswell High series often used music to give intel about a character's mood. "Round Here" and "A Long December" used to be very close mood songs.
I've definitely picked up on some good music/bands that were played as background music in movies & TV shows!
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