1994Released
4:49

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Hook. By Songfacts®.

Put simply, the song is a sort of satire. A hook is the part of the song that people like; the part that makes you remember the song. Normally it's the chorus, but not always. Lead singer John Popper, who wrote this song, is saying that no matter what you put in a song, if it has a hook people like, you can say whatever you want and people will like the song and buy into it - "It doesn't matter what I say as long as I sing with in-FLEC-tion." He knows that a hit song needs to have a catchy hook, whether or not it takes any talent or emotion. "The hook brings you back" is the hook of the song, so he can say whatever he wants in this part and get away with it. The message is that you don't need deep, meaningful lyrics to make people like your music. You need a good hook, and it helps to be charismatic. On a deeper level, this can relate to superficial society in general, which is demonstrated in the video which shows beauty pageant contestants and a politician singing the song - they're all show and no substance, but most people don't notice or care.

This song's entire melodic line is directly based on a piece of classical music: Pachelbel's "Canon in D." The well-recognized melody can also be considered an aural "hook," giving the title another amusing twist.

This was the follow up to Blues Traveler's first hit, "Run-Around." The band formed in high school in 1986 and released their first album 1990. Four was their fourth album, released in September 1994. By the time "Hook" hit the charts, the album had been out for about a year.

Top Listeners

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Hook.
AKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
166BPM

Album

The album Hook is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Hook.
A&M
© 1994 A & M Records Inc.
℗ 1994 UMG Recordings, Inc.

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

5.8MArtists
73.5MSongs
12.3MAlbums
6.3KGenres
2.5MLabels
493KPlaylists