The boy named Goo who said I wasn’t his boss

Hello Goo Goo Dolls fans. Today I want to share with you some details about one of the oldest hidden secrets about the band’s past, which apparently has been finally solved. In 1995 the album “A Boy Named Goo” was released, and it represented the fifth effort since the act originally formed exactly ten years before. I think I don’t need to talk about the album much per se, as I’m sure you all already know plenty about such breakthrough release. What I want to discuss, instead, has to do with a couple of minor details about the origins of the album, artistically and title-wise.

I recently spoke with a source who was close to the band, and I asked them about a rumor I had read online many years ago. The claim had to do with the original album cover. I remember being told that the original cover for “A Boy Named Goo” featured a sumo guy standing on a bridge. I distinctly remember being presented with that information on several occasions. I then asked the source about it, and lo and behold! The secret is uncovered!

Before proceeding any further, you should know that former drummer George Tutuska was also deeply involved with the artistic side of the Goo Goo Dolls project, on top of also contributing to songwriting and melody structure. He had been an art director for all the previous releases before “A Boy Named Goo”, working on album covers and internal designs. Production for their fifth effort was no different. George also created the original album cover for it.

The source stated that the sumo guy on a bridge is not true. Instead, the original album cover, the one George created, featured a kid dressed up as a cowboy holding a toy gun and facing the camera. Furthermore, the source informed me that the initial title for the album was “You Ain’t The Boss Of Me“. It makes sense. Imagine a cowboy kid pointing a fake gun at you, letting you know you are not his boss.

While I am not sure about the message the band wanted to relay with that cover, I am glad after many years of research I was able to unveil one of the best-kept secrets the Goos have disseminated around.

Here is a scanned copy of the Advance version which was sent out to radio stations to promote the upcoming fifth release. It was issued slightly before George ended up being fired by the band.

As you can see, the album title was not “You Ain’t The Boss Of Me”, meaning they decided to change it to the final one before George had been put aside. Now take a look at the track listing. This was the original track listing as conceived by the members who formed the band. A total of 12 songs, with the major differences being the song “Ain’t That Unusual” titled “Someday“, and the second last song “Stand Alone“, which was written by Tutuska, making an appearance. As you all know, the latter was canned and replaced by two cover tracks, which were also produced by a different producer than the one who worked on “ABNG”.

I asked the source about the possibility of releasing the cowboy kid original album cover, but it was denied. I guess there are copyright issues that prevented them from doing so. Either way, I really hope someday we will get a chance to look at it. For now, we can only picture it in our heads.