Bands’ careers have been made, or broken, by their attempts to write a love-torn power ballad. The Goo Goo Dolls, Paul Westerberg-loving punks, did it better than most. In fact, “Iris” is nearly unquestionably one of the greatest alternative rock songs of the 1990s.
But just why do I think “Iris” might’ve derailed a very promising career? And what do the lyrics to this song that never stops being played on the radio actually mean? This is what I’m going to try and answer here.
Goo Goo Dolls’ Journey to Making “Iris”
Goo Goo Dolls earned two notable things as the band’s career wore on. The band’s name had “The” added to it, and singer John Rzeznik became a kind of Jon Bon Jovi of the alternative-rock world.
But what about the band’s beginnings? Fantastic, for the most part, I think. In the wake of The Replacements, melodic, destructive punks from Minneapolis, numerous fans formed bands that sounded a lot like Paul Westerberg’s music. One of them was Goo Goo Dolls.
Goo Goo Dolls recorded five full-length albums between 1987 and 1995. All of them, somewhat dubiously, I think, were released on Metal Blade. Of those, “A Boy Named Goo” is by far the best, and an early indication of Rzeznik’s ability to create compelling melodies.
What about the power ballads? Nearly all of Goo Goo Dolls’ releases were politely ignored by the mainstream and by much of alternative rock. However, 1993’s acoustic-lead “Name,” an excellent, if atypical song, set the pattern for the band’s future catalogue.
Arguably, “Dizzy Up the Girl” was not quite as good as the predecessor. But while John Rzeznik battled terrible writer’s block, the album was a commercial juggernaut with several radio hits. None was, of course, as big as “Iris.”
The Goo Goo Dolls’ Meaning of the Lyrics to “Iris”
I’m not sure that Paul Westerberg was cut out for writing songs for movies or for other bands, despite him being one of the best songwriters of his generation. Rzeznik, on the other hand, as it turns out, was.
In fact, following the success of “Name,” Rzeznik landed the opportunity to write music for the Hollywood film “City of Angels.” The romantic comedy starred Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan. It would become a minor hit, in no small part due to the song Rzeznik pitched to the producers.
Before he could do this, however, the Goo Goo Dolls’ frontman suffered a real crisis of confidence. He spent months unable to write anything he liked. And, when he went in to pitch the song, one of the strings on his guitar snapped because of the opening tuning he uses.
Rzeznik detailed the process in an interview with Louder saying: “Most of the time, for me, writing involves procrastination, fear, doubt, criticism… Most songs I write I have to torture myself; be a prima donna for about an hour. But ‘Iris’ came so easy. I’d broken two strings on my guitar, so I’d started winding all the strings up and down in these weird configurations, and that song just came out. It was like a gift – like: ‘Oh, thanks God!‘”
The song attempts to retell the story of the film, that of an angel willing to give up immortality because of love for a woman. It’s the story of someone who can only be made visible by someone else’s love.
As for the title, that was picked up by the songwriter while glancing at a record by country singer Iris DeMent.
Music Video for “Iris”
The song may have been written in 3/4 time and features the non-standard guitar tuning of BDDDDD. But it was the quality of the song, as well as the music, that really helped to have a massive comemrcial impact.
The music video intersperses scenes of John Rzeznik hiding in a tower from where he glances at the world through a telescope, with scenes from the movie. The promo video was heavily played on MTV and similar stations.
The Legacy of The Goo Goo Dolls and “Iris”
Not only did “Iris” allow Goo Goo Dolls the opportunity to be on the same soundtrack as Alanis Morissette and Peter Gabriel. The song was a colossal success.
The song was nominated for a couple of Grammy awards. The single received diamond certification in 2024. And, Rolling Stone, if you can believe that, calls it the 39th best pop song of all time. And when it was featured in the very meh action movie “Deadpool & Wolverine” in 2024, the song re-became a streaming hit.
But what about the band? Did Goo Goo Dolls achieve great new heights? Commercially, yes.
However, the success of “Iris” meant that the band worked hard to lock down its popularity with fans of its tender pop-rock material. Songs like “Here Is Gone” and “Slide” are noteworthy acoustic-rock. Like Matchbox Twenty, some of the material is really good, most is forgettable, and all of it is made, specifically, for fans of a certain age.
Still, I suppose, fans of the band’s scruffy indie-rock of the early 1990s are very different from the fans of their current incarnation.
Despite all of this, “Iris” is, indeed, one of the great songs of the Alternative Era, and Goo Goo Dolls’ shining moment.
