One of the more successful groups to emerge from the pre-Britpop U.K. alternative scene of the early '90s,
The Cranberries seamlessly blended guitar dream pop and Celtic stylings to offer an unbeatable sound. The Cranberries were founded by brothers Noel (guitar) and Mike Hogan (bass), drummer Fergal Lawler, and frontman Niall Quinn in 1990. Quinn left the band early on and was replaced by his girlfriend, Dolores O’Riordan. All of the band members were in their teens when they recorded a demo tape and shopped it around to local record stores near their hometown of
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Limerick, Ireland. Eventually, they were signed to Island Records and came out with their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? in 1993. An enthusiastically received tour in the United States followed, which led to the heavy circulation of their single, “
Linger” on MTV. The single went on to reach number eight on the U.S. charts, while the album went double platinum. Everybody Else and "Linger" began to take off in Britain in early 1994; the album eventually peaked at number one during the summer.
With O'Riordan in the spotlight, the Cranberries second album, No Need to Argue debuted at #6 on the U.S. charts and eventually outsold its predecessor; within a year it went triple platinum, spawning such hit Cranberries’ songs as "
Zombie" "Ode to My Family." Amidst rumors that O’Riordan was leaving to pursue a solo career, the band released their third album, To the Faithful Departed in 1996. The album entered the charts at #6, but its first single, "Salvation," failed to become a hit on par with "Zombie," "Linger," or "Ode to My Family." A subsequent album also failed to replicate earlier successes. In 2003, shortly after the release of their greatest-hits compilation, Stars: The Best of 1992-2002, the Cranberries officially declared that they were going on hiatus. O'Riordan took the opportunity to record her long-awaited solo album, which came out in 2007, but not before she and the Cranberries had acquired one of the finest names in the indie scene.
