Superstar Car Wash: Trivia And Curiosities

I find 1993 to be the most interesting year for the Goo Goo Dolls. Why? Because they released their best album, according to my own opinion: Superstar Car Wash. Therefore, I feel very curious about anything that has to do with it. I tried reaching out to some people who were involved with it, but to no avail. The best “connection” I found was former drummer George Tutuska. He has a Twitter account (archived version here) and he is very active there. Apparently, he is into photography and art. I am not surprised. Not many people know that George was an Art Director for the first five albums, before he was unjustly kicked out of the band. He contributed plenty to both songwriting and general band outlook. A dedicated post about him and his true role in the band can be found here.

So, 1993 kicks in after a bleak 1992. John Rzeznik gets married with Laurie Farinacci, whom he met in 1990. Read about her in this post. In February, Superstar Car Wash is released. I’ve made separate posts about some rare interviews I’ve found about it, which were published that year. Browse the blog and have fun finding them. For now, let’s just focus on the SSCW trivia and curiosities I have discovered over the years. Let me list them below:

• The song “We Are The Normal” was written by Paul Westerberg, from the band The Replacements. This is a well-known fact. The music for it was composed by the band, a demo was sent to Paul via mail, he wrote the lyrics for it and sent the latter back to the Goo’s. They never met in a studio to work on it. According to this interview, the band was not happy with the label’s decision to release it as a single, and vehemently fought them for a few months until they were told to stop complaining. According to Robby, the song was not a good choice because it was not representative of the whole album.
• The track “So Far Away” was originally written and recorded with the title “Dancing In Your Blood“. The latter appears in one of the demo sessions leaked years ago by an anonymous source. If you’re curious to know more about those demos, check out this post of mine.
• “Girl Right Next To Me” was written by John for his former wife Laurie Farinacci. It is speculated “Cuz You’re Gone” was also written for her. A demo version of the song, which appears in one of the many leaked demo sessions, actually features a faster-paced execution. Quite interesting. Also, the track was initially titled “Right Next To Me“.
• Superstar Car Wash was an actual car washing business on William Street just outside the downtown region of Buffalo which is the band’s hometown. It was torn down in the 2000’s, I believe. Here it is in all of its glory before it got demolished. Read the full post about the iconic place here. In this interview, George Tutuska explains that the reason why the album was named after that car washing business was simply because the band would often drive by it.
• A drawing of a maple leaf is printed on the CD. Maybe a way to thank Canada? (the album was recorded there).
• The producer of the album, Gavin MacKillop, is Scottish and has lived in London for many years before relocating to the USA. Initially, the band started working on the album with long-time collaborator, friend, and producer Armand John Petri, who also produced their previous two albums (“Jed” and “Hold Me Up”). Petri was John Rzeznik’s friend and also his best man at the singer’s wedding with Laurie Farinacci in 1993. Some time later, the label decided to switch producers, assigning the band to MacKillop. After the recording sessions in Canada, him and the band did not maintain a good relationship, and according to John, MacKillop actually ended up hating them. The reason is unknown.
• The songs “So The Story Goes” and “Waiting On A Dream (feat. Lance Diamond)” never made the final cut. In a way, the third song officially canned, “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know“, made the final cut. Read more about it here. Speaking of “So The Story Goes“, I would say it’s a decent tune which clearly draws inspiration from the fast Irish-punk rock movement of the 1980’s. I am not surprised it did not appear in the final version of the album, given the fact its style and sounds do not fit at all the overall mood of the latter. The same observation can be made about “Waiting On A Dream“. The song is a quite nice, upbeat tune which also features trumpets a-la “Bitch“, on top of fast-paced piano and background female choruses. However, it does not sound like a Goo Goo Dolls song at all, and just like Robby’s shelved tune, it wouldn’t have fitted with the melodies of the full length. Furthermore, I believe there may have been a mistake in naming the song, as the lyrics often repeat the sentence “Working on a dream“. It is likely whoever was in charge of the demo sessions may have labeled it incorrectly.
• On the matter why Lance Diamond did not make an appearance on the album: It is stated by the band in a couple of 1995 interviews that they did plenty of stuff with him in the past, and felt it was time to record an album entirely comprised of Goo Goo Dolls material only. This is the same reason they provided when asked why, contrary to their previous releases, no cover was included in the final release.
• The album offered the chance to do an European tour for the first time, which began in Belgium but was canceled soon thereafter.
• On the back of the CD there is a picture of the band featuring John with long hair. Another set of promo pictures was taken at the car wash later, this time with John showing a different haircut, which at the time was very similar to the one Jon Bon Jovi had. He jokes about it here.
• One of the demo tapes circulating online has been titled “Marvelous Sauce“. This may be sarcastic, or maybe it was the original title of the album. Furthermore, it may be related to a connection the Goo Goo Dolls had with another Buffalo, NY band at the time.
• The song “Cuz You’re Gone” is actually quite old and may have been written while “Hold Me Up” was recorded or soon thereafter. There are a couple of videos on YouTube of 1991 concerts where it is played live. Some users even claim it to have heard it during 1990 concerts. In this clip, at around mark 12:30, John introduces it to the crowd for the first time (Thanks to user Bailey for forwarding us the info — EDIT: Apparently that was not the first time the song was played, a concept reinforced by the bullet point below). At one point after the album was released, it was also considered as a possible second single after “We Are The Normal“.
• A 1991 concert performed in Boston, MA makes us re-evaluate how old some of the songs featured in the album actually were. As stated above, “Cuz You’re Gone” was actually performed way back in 1991 and speculated to be written around the time “Hold Me Up” was being recorded, or slightly after. During the aforementioned concert, two other “Superstar Car Wash” songs are introduced to the crowd by Robby, “Girl Right Next To Me” and “Close Your Eyes“. Hence, it is likely these tunes were also written around the time the previous album was being recorded, just like “Cuz You’re Gone“, making them quite old as well.
• The song “Already There” was also being considered by the band as a potential single at some point, as per this interview.
• Originally, there was the intention to include a Police cover in the album, which was for the song “Next To You“. An instrumental version of it appears in one of the leaked demo tapes. Furthermore, the band also wanted to record another cover song, that is the one for Tommy Tutone’s classic “867-5309 / Jenny“. The latter does not even appear in one of the leaked demo sessions, making it obvious they totally scrapped the idea.
• On the matter of demo tapes, some users on the internet claimed there is a demo session featuring a song titled “Hold Me Up“, the exact same title as their previous 1990 album. That information is not correct. Some other users make another claim that another song, titled “So Lonely“, is also present in one of the demo sessions which are rare to find. I briefly wrote about these two rumors here.

Below are pictures of a promo cassette which appeared in late 1992, featuring the original song titles before they got changed in the final version of the album. Here is the discogs entry for it.

That’s all I know. If you have more info about this amazing album, get in touch with me and I will update this post.