
The Cranberries And Transcending Time
The Cranberries are an Irish-born group that have truly transcended time. They began in 1989 and are still coming out with music in the last decade. They have produced songs like “Zombie,” which was voted best song in the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards, and “Linger” which was ranked 94th on Billboard top 100 in August of 2024 though the song came out in 1993.
The Cranberries is made up of a quartet of artists: singer/songwriter and musician Dolores O’Riordan, co-songwriter and lead guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler. O’Riordan did pass away on January 15th, 2018, but her legacy with the Cranberries does live on as they have for over 30 years.
Before that though, the band started with just three teenagers, Lawler and the two Hogan brothers met growing up in Limerick and sharing their love for groups like the Cure and the Smiths. This love for those bands led them to wanting to start their own rock band making their own music. To start, they formed a quartet with a male singer, but after about six months, in early 1990, he left.
In comes O’Riordan who comes to audition for them. At first they thought of her said someone who was “quiet as a mouse,” as Noel Hogan remembers it. That was until she sang. She blew all others out of the water. It was said that Dolores O’Riordan’s talent was the catalyst needed to force their band to the next level.
The following year, they began recording their debit album Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can’t We? with producer Stephen Street who worked with The Smiths. The album’s title was O’Riodran’s creation, as every album title was. It expressed perfectly their determination to succeed.
Success is what ended up happening for the Cranberries as their first album’s success remains unprecedented. After being released in the UK in March 1993, the album really took off a couple of months later when their song “Linger” was picked up by college radio in America and the band toured across the Atlantic. It would eventually go on to hit number one in both Ireland and the UK and sell more than six million copies worldwide.
From then on the Cranberries have continued to make music throughout the 30-plus years as their last album comes in 2019 titled “In The End” with 11 songs for 43 minutes. This album is essentially the farewell album with it coming after O’Riordan’s passing. Though they may not be making music anymore, the band’s music still is being played to this day as “Linger” lives on in the new generations as it was a TikTok trend for a couple of months hence being on Billboard top 100 in August of 2024.