The sibling trio's debut single, "MMMBop," became a No. 1 smash on the Billboard Hot 100.
FANS OF HANSON WHO REMEMBER the sibling trio's debut single, "MMMBop," as one irresistibly bouncy song may be surprised to hear that Zac Hanson, the youngest of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, brothers, calls it "pretty somber."
A nod to the impermanence of most relationships — "In an mmmbop they're gone," Taylor Hanson sings — "MMMBop" originally was recorded as a ballad for the band's 1996 indie album of the same name. But when Hanson, which formed in 1992, entered the studio to record Middle of Nowhere, its major-label debut for Mercury/PolyGram, producers the Dust Brothers (Beck's Odelay) suggested redoing the song at a speedier tempo.
The result was a pop-music rocket fueled by the song's hook and the boys' teen-dream wholesomeness: Isaac was 16; Taylor, 14; and Zac, 11. The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks beginning May 24, 1997.