Hooters

Hooters

http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000657/Hooters.html

Michael McGettigan of Philadelphia magazine described the Hooters as “an all oldies band, a working class oldies band.” This somewhat negative summation of the Hooters sound was in direct opposition to what most fans, and many critics, were saying about the rock band.

The band first formed in the mid-seventies when Hyman and singer Eric Bazilian met at the University of Pennsylvania. Both were science majors, but both dreamed of musical careers. Hyman had been intent on music since age three, when he first learned to play the Davy Crokett theme on the piano. This hobby grew to a serious love in college. He told People magazine that he “did terribly at biology. I came to school really to do one thing–find musicians. I just wanted to jam.” And so he found what he was looking for in Eric Bazilian.

Bazilian came from a musical family; before giving birth to Eric, his mother played piano for the Fred Waring band. This musicality rubbed off on Bazilian, who was also drawn to science and saw a connection between his two passions: “quantum physics and thermodynamics [were] the same as creating a piece of music: the initial burst when you get started; the middle where you don’t know where you’re going; then the burst of inspiration when suddenly the whole thing makes sense.”

What made sense, then, was for Hyman and Bazilian to form a group and that’s exactly what they did. In 1978 they were signed with Arista Records as an experimental group called Baby Grand. Though they eventually disbanded, the duo stuck together and were joined by drummer David Uosikkinen. The three men comprised an early version of the Hooters, which eventually broke up.

The most recent Hooter-related success echoes their beginnings: songwriting. Eric Bazilian wrote the 1996 Joan Osbourne hit single, “One of Us, ” for which he received a Grammy nomination. But Bazilian is not the only Hooter with a successful side project.