On March 1, 1993 The Cranberries released their debut record Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?. As the album turns 25, learn more with 25 facts about the band.

 

1. The band formed in 1989 with lead singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, his brother and bassist Mike Hogan, and drummer Fergal Lawler.

2. When Niall Quinn left the band in 1990, the band put out an advertisement looking for a female singer.

3. Dolores O’Riordan responded to the ad, auditioned and got the gig.

4. The band was originally called Cranberry Saw Us. The joke was that if you said it quickly, it would sound like “Cranberry Sauce”.

5. They changed the name after a demo tape was sent back to them address to “The Cranberries”.

6. Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? was written entirely by O’Riordan and guitarist Noel Hogan.

7. Since its release, the album has sold over 5 million copies.

8. The songs “Dreams” features backing vocals sung by Mike Mahoney, O’Riordan’s ex.

9. Three videos were made for the song, each featuring the band in a different location. The third version was the most popular in North America and showed O’Riordan performing in a nightclub. She leaves mid-song, dragging her microphone into the woods.

 

10. O’Riordan wrote “Linger” about her first kiss with a soldier she once loved.

11. It was also the song that got her the job. She auditioned with her own version of the song, which ended up being the final cut.

12. The video for the song is a tribute to Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1965 noir-film Alphaville.

13. In 1994, O’Riordan married Don Burton, former manger of Duran Duran. They had three children.

14. O’Riordan sang for the Pope three times. Each time was at the Vatican’s annual Christmas party in 2001, 2002 and 2005.

15. Rolling Stone calls them “Ireland’s biggest musical export since U2”.

16. The band was one of the first to partner with Ticketmaster.com to become one of the first artists to sell tickets for a national tour exclusively online.

17. In 2003, the band scrapped the album they had been working on to work on their own solo projects.

18. Guitarist Noel Hogan started his own one man band called Mono Band. He later went on to start his own label, Gohan Records.

19. During the hiatus, O’Riordan began her own solo career. She released two albums, Are You Listening? and No Baggage.

20. She was outspoken about many issues, including child abuse. The Cranberries song “Fee Fi Fo” is about her own abuse as a child.

 

21. The band’s biggest song, “Zombie”, was written in response to the deaths of Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball who were killed in the Warrington bomb attack earlier that year.

22. The lyrics reference the Easter Rising Rebellion in Ireland in 1916 with the lines, It’s the same old theme / Since nineteen-sixteen / In your head, in your head, they’re still fightin’ / With their tanks, and their bombs / And their bombs, and their guns / In your head, in your head, they are dyin’.

23. Following the band’s performance of the song on Saturday Night Live, author Dave Thompson called it “one of the most powerful performances that the show has ever seen”.

24. On January 15, 2018, Dolores O’Riordan passed away in London. She was found just hours before she was set to record “Zombie” with hard rock band Bad Wolves.

25. The band released the song, with all proceeds being donated to her children.

 

 

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