The Alternative Number Ones: Goo Goo Dolls’ “Name”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I’m reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it’s for members only. Thank you to everyone who’s helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

I'll tell 'em a name: Goo Goo Dolls. That's a name. Originally, they were the Sex Maggots. That's a better name, in my opinion, but it probably would've made things more difficult for them financially. The story goes that they had to change their name because a club refused to put the name "Sex Maggots" on a marquee, so they had to come up with a new name or else lose the gig. They flipped through an old issue of the pulp magazine True Detective and saw an ad for a toy called a Goo Goo Doll, so that became their name. They knew the name was dumb, and they meant to change it, but they never did.

"Goo Goo Dolls" is an absolute nonsense name, but it was the right kind of nonsense for '90s alt-rock radio. In that moment, names didn't have to mean anything. If your name was more nonsensical, that meant that you were more mysterious and thus more commercially viable. It didn't matter that Toad The Wet Sprocket took their name from a skit on a Monty Python album; it mattered that the name meant nothing. Same with "Goo Goo Dolls." It tripped off the tongue when DJs were rattling off band names, and that was good enough. By the time the Goo Goo Dolls scored their first huge radio hit, they were already five albums deep into their career, but they weren't exactly a brand name.