2. “Hey Jealousy” – Gin Blossoms: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “Hey Jealousy” – Gin Blossoms

(From the album New Miserable Experience)

1992

The Gin Blossoms were signed to A&M Records on the strength of their growing fan base and their independent debut album. However, upon signing with the label the songwriters in the band were hit with a serious case of writer’s block and what was meant to be their debut album wound up being just an EP. The band returned to the studio not long after to try again and this time they were able to finish their major label debut New Miserable Experience, which was released in 1992. Whether or not the band really escaped the writer’s block that had plagued their first attempt is debatable as six songs, a full half of the album, were songs that were already released either on their independent label debut Dusted or on the Up And Crumbling EP (and five of the album’s six singles were from this group). Many of these songs were rerecorded is slightly shinier, less raw versions, all of which makes the success of New Miserable Experience even more unusual in the wake of Nirvana. That said, Gin Blossoms did feature a sound that carefully walked the line between 80’s college rock and 90’s grunge and alt and so appealed to a wide swath of listeners. That success was slow to come though. New Miserable Experience was released to little fanfare and with little promotion from A&M. Indeed, the record’s first two singles – “Lost Horizons” and “Mrs. Rita” – both found little success. However, almost a year after the album’s release a third single was released and that song, “Hey Jealousy”, rode the wave of alt rock success into the Top 25 in America and Britain and turned the Gin Blossoms into a sudden success. That success was already being tainted however by the fact that the writer of the song, guitarist Doug Hopkins, was battling crippling alcoholism and had been forced out of the band by the record label at the end of the recording sessions, long before “Hey Jealousy” became a hit. Initially the rest of the band considered the move to be temporary and new guitarist Scott Johnson was hired only as a touring guitarist to replace Hopkins on the tour to promote the album while he sought help. However, both Hopkins alcoholism and his attitude got worse after being forced out and he became estranged from his former bandmates as well. This situation was only exacerbated by the eventual success of “Hey Jealousy”. On one level Hopkins was pleased that the song was a success but it pained him that he was not in the band enjoying the fruits of that success, a situation made worse by the fact that he had signed over much of his songwriting royalties at the time of his exit because of his desperate financial situation). It was also difficult because the song, which had become inescapable, was directly about his relationship with an ex-girlfriend and featured lyrics he had penned about him showing up at her house and begging to stay the night because he was drunk and had nowhere else to go, only to ultimately admit that he knows he has already lost her and that she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Feeling abandoned, struggling with his demons, and unable to escape the song that was a constant reminder of his failings, Doug Hopkins committed suicide in December of 1993, just as “Hey Jealousy” was coming down from its commercial peak. 

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