The band's first lineup. Clockwise from top left: Aaron Comess, Eric Schenkman, Chris Barron, Mark White.
Spin Doctors are an American pop rock band.
The band started life as a band called Trucking Company and was led by John Popper. When he left the project to form Blues Traveler, he gave lead singing duties to his high school best friend Chris Barron. They signed with Epic Records in 1991, a year later in 1992 they would earn their first radio hits "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" and later "Two Princes".
Guitarist Eric Schenkman left the band in 1994, and other members (original and replacement) came and went over the next several years. Barron lost his voice while the band was on tour in support of their 1999 album Here Comes the Bride, and most of the performances were ultimately cancelled. He regained the use of his voice in 2000; the original lineup reunited a year later and went on to record two more studio albums before bassist Mark White was fired in 2022.
Discography
- Up for Grabs...Live (1991, live EP)
- Pocket Full of Kryptonite (1991)
- Homebelly Groove...Live (1992, live album)
- Turn It Upside Down (1994)
- You've Got to Believe in Something (1996)
- Here Comes the Bride (1999)
- Nice Talking to Me (2005)
- If the River Was Whiskey (2013)
- Songs from the Road (2015, live album)
Principal Members (Founding members in italics, current members in bold):
- Chris Barron - lead vocals (1988-1999, 2001-present)
- Carl Carter - bass (1998-1999)
- Aaron Comess - drums (1988-1999, 2001-present); keyboards (1998-1996, 2001-present); guitar (1999); bass (1999, 2022-present)
- Anthony Krizan - guitar, backing vocals (1994-1996)
- Ivan Neville - keyboards, backing vocals (1996-1999)
- John Popper - harmonica, lead vocals (during the Trucking Company era)
- Eric Schenkman - guitar, occasional lead/backing vocals (1988-1994, 2001-present)
- Eran Tabib - guitar, backing vocals (1996-1999)
- Mark White - bass (1988-1996, 2001-2022)
"Tropes that adore you"
- Album Title Drop: Pocket Full of Kryptonite is a line from the chorus of "Jimmy Olsen's Blues".
- Better Partner Assertion: "Two Princes" is a slight variation; both "princes" adore the girl in question, and the other is richer, has better prospects, is approved of by the girl's father, and so on. However, the singer still earnestly predicts that the girl will be happier with him.
- Blues Rock: Munch of their later material, most notably in If the River Was Whiskey.
- Career-Ending Injury: Narrowly averted in the case of Chris Barron. After he lost his voice during the tour for Here Comes the Bride (due to paralysis of his vocal cords), doctors only gave him a 50-50 chance of ever being able to talk or sing normally again. He got his voice back in early 2000 and spent most of that year and next working on his own until the whole band reunited in fall 2001.
- Conlang: Shows up between songs on the Homebelly Groove...Live album. Chris Barron starts speaking in an exotic-sounding language and gets the audience to repeat each sentence after him. Several lengthy exchanges later, he gives the translation — "Can we get a pitcher of water on the stage?" — and adds, "It's not a very efficient language. It takes a little...a little explaining." He speaks a bit of this same language during "Biscuit Head," on Turn It Upside Down.
- Cover Version: "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" by Creedence Clearwater Revival and later "That's The Way (I Like It)" for the Space Jam soundtrack with Biz Markie. The latter was included as a Hidden Track on You've Got to Believe in Something.
- The Diss Track: "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" and "Yo Mama's a Pajama," for example.
- Epic Rocking: "Can't Kick the Habit" is 8 minutes long, and roughly half of it is a guitar solo.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: "Cleopatra's Cat" contains lyrics sung in Latin.
- Greasy Spoon: "Hungry Hamed's".
- Hidden Track: "That's the Way (I Like It)" as noted above. Here Comes the Bride also includes one called "Let's Try Again," backmasked.
- Questioning Title?: "What Time Is It?" and "How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)"
- Parent-Preferred Suitor: The main theme of "Two Princes".
- Scatting: Comes up quite often.
- Step Up to the Microphone: "Off My Line" from Pocket Full of Kryptonite, "Indifference" from Turn It Upside Down, and "Genuine" from Nice Talking to Me are sung by guitarist Eric Schenkman.
- Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: "Big Fat Funky Booty"
- Train Song: "'Bout a Train" from You've Got to Believe in Something.
- Wham Line: "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" contains this lyric;I hope them cigarettes are gonna make you cough / I hope you heard this song and it pissed you off / I take that back, I hope you're doing fine / And if I had a dollar, I might give you ninety-nine.
