The song that Isaac and Zac sometimes sing different lyrics for is “Musical Ride”.
Zac has a scar from doing what holiday activity?
Hiatus: BTTI 2017 January 4-8
We are currently heading out to Back To the Island 2017. We will be posting setlists directly to the 2017 tour page after each show (or at least the next morning) Also be sure to follow us on instagram where we will post photos from the resort and shows!
Child stars. You won’t believe where they are now!
SBS
Zac Hanson
Known as the funny member of the highly successful band ‘Hanson’, the world watched Zac Hanson grow up alongside his brothers Taylor and Isaac as the talented trio released a string of hits including ‘MMMBop’, and probably some other stuff, throughout the 90s.
Strangely, however, fame had a different effect on each brother, with Isaac and Taylor blossoming into young men, husbands and fathers, while Zac has spent the last 20 years, and a vast portion of his fortune, transforming himself into some kind of half man, half hat-stand creature.
Still capable of drumming, but perfectly showcasing the dangers of a Hollywood lifestyle and a lack of adequate mental and financial guidance, Zac’s transformation appears obvious once pointed out, but as the indisputably least popular member of the band, few fans seem to have noticed the change.
MMMBop & Middle of Nowhere Turn 20!
It’s officially 2017 and that means that MMMBop and Middle of Nowhere will be turning 20 this year. Articles are already being posted with lists of songs/albums turning 20 this year. Here are a few:
39 Albums That Will Turn 20 In 2017
1997 was a hell of a year. Tell your children all about it!
5. Hanson, Middle of Nowhere
Featuring: “MMMBop,” “Where’s the Love”
20 Classic Songs That Are Turning 20 Years Old In 2017
C’mon, 1997 was definitely 10 years ago, right?
3. “MMMbop” – Hanson
Mercury/PolyGram / Via 90s90s90s.tumblr.com
Classic lyric: “Mmmbop, ba duba dop, ba du bop, ba duba dop, ba du bop, ba duba dop ba du, yeah.”
20 songs turning 20 in 2017 that’ll make you happy
Allow us to take you on a journey back to when Hanson was still an emerging band and we all just really, really, really wanted to zigazig ah.
Hanson, “MMMbop”
Hanson 2016 Year in Review
Hanson 2016 Year In Review
January
Once again Hanson kicked off the new year with their concert event “Back to the Island”, this year they actually did go “back” as the event returned to Jamaica after visiting Cancun, Mexico the year before. The event had the first show that was postponed due to weather. Fans found out that Hanson would be on the cover of the February 2016 edition of Entrepreneur Magazine. Back to the Island 2017 was announced. Taylor published another post on PaperMag’s site.
February
Hanson did a live video chat with Entrepreneur magazine. Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star released a compilation of lullaby renditions of some of Hanson’s songs. Live from Red Rocks: Blues Traveler featuring Hanson debuted on AXS TV. Schedule details for Hanson Day 2016 were released.
March
In March, we found out that Hanson was doing a collaboration with Dead Armadillo to create the “Inland Porter” beer. Setlist theme voting for BTTI 2017 began. The lineup for The Hop Jam was released – and Hanson would not be headlining. Taylor turned 33. Hanson’s indie release, MMMBop, turned 20 which garnered a lot of media attention. Loud + Play were announced – while there would be no brand new Hanson album in 2016 we would be getting an albums worth of new music with LOUD being the Members Only EP and PLAY having elements recorded live at Hanson Day in May. Inland Porter had a release party at Fassler Hall in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Media outlets picked up on Hanson’s comment that no one has been able to cover MMMBop properly.
April
It was announced that Hanson would be teaming up with Bun E Carlos on the song “Him or Me” for his covers album release. Hanson’s name was included on the poster for the Tulsa concert celebrating Bob Dylan.
May
May kicked off with The Hop Jam pub crawl. RVRB was announced as the winner of the opening band contest for The Hop Jam. Hanson sang the National Anthem at a Tulsa Drillers baseball game and once again got lots of media attention over it. Stamford Alive @ Five announced their summer concert lineup, including Hanson. Nick aka “Tall Bald Guy” starts the H-Bomb podcast.
June
Hanson was announced as one of the headlining acts at Brews & BBQs. We celebrated 19 years since MMMBop was on the top of the Official Singles Chart. Hanson’s song with Bun E Carlos “Him or Me”, a cover of the Paul Revere and the Raiders hit was released via Billboard. The schedule for the “Making of Play” streams on Hanson.net were announced. “Choo Choo Trains of Thought”, the song (and T-Shirt it inspired) Zac recorded at Hanson Day becomes available for purchase in the Hanson.net store. Hanson Navy Base shows in Japan were canceled due to a period of mourning. MMMBop was covered in a Doo-Wop Style by Postmodern Jukebox.
July
Hanson headed overseas to entertain members of the US Navy for the 4th of July. Hanson perform on “Greatest Hits” on ABC and perform “MMMBop” as well as a duet of “Thinking Bout Somethin” with Echosmith. Hanson divulge some of their plans for the 20th anniversary of the release of Middle of Nowhere. Dates for Eat to the Beat 2016 were released with Hanson once again performing 3 days at the Food and Wine festival at Disney World’s EPCOT park. Isaac’s podcast “Grace Unknown” debuts as a Hanson.net Members Only exclusive. Despite a thunderstorm, Hanson performs in Stamford, CT as a part of their Alive at Five concert series. As a part of “Christmas in July” Hanson asks fans for their input on Christmas songs and Christmas ornaments. The H-Bomb Show’s summer series began – a quest to create the ultimate Hanson compilation CD/playlist. Hanson asked for Fans Top 25 Studio Songs and Top 15 Members Only songs – we at Hansonstage had a “best of the rest” vote.
August
Zac and his wife Kate welcomed their 4th child, a daughter named Mary Lucille Diana. Ryan Reynold’s tweet about MMMBop goes viral.
September
Hanson performs in Rockford, IL at Brews & BBQs and is joined by Bun E Carlos during the encore to perform “Him or Me”. Gylne Tider meets Hanson on Norwegian television. Hanson was joined in the studio by Mark Hudson as they began work on “Wintry Mix” (working title) their new Christmas album which will be released for the holidays in 2017.
October
Hanson Brothers Beer announced some of their upcoming events via newsletter to fans. Hanson appear in an article in New York Magazine about “How Young Singers Deal with Getting Old”. Zac attended the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado and jumped on stage with a few other musicians to perform a few songs. PLAY was released in digital format via Hanson.net on October 10. The H-Bomb podcast came to their conclusion for the track listing of their ultimate Hanson compilation. Joe Jonas mentioned Hanson in his Reddit AMA. Zac turned 31. Hanson performed at Disney dressed as The Avengers – with Isaac as Captain America, Taylor as Iron Man and Zac as Thor.
November
The month began with Hanson’s beer seminar at EPCOT and their last 3 sets at Disney’s Eat to the Beat concert series. Hanson participated in “Inside the Album” at Cain’s Ballroom with Mark Hudson and C.J. Eiriksson. Isaac turned 36. Taylor performed at a memorial for Leon Russell. Zac’s wife Kate wrote a blog on Nameberry about how they picked the name for their 4th child, Lulu. Andrew Ripp and JD McPherson were announced as the special guests for Back to the Island 2017.
December
December kicked off with the Finally It’s Christmas stream. Hanson Day weekend dates were announced as May 19 & 20, 2017. We found out more details about the Wintry Mix Christmas album being worked on for release for the 2017 holiday season as well as saw some never before seen clips from the recording of Snowed In in 1997. John Fullbright was announced as replacing JD McPherson at Back to the Island. Zac released a Christmas song on Super Digital Pants called “Christmas Ball”. After some tweets from Zac media outlets posted articles saying the new Christmas album was going to be called “Ooh Christmas”. Taylor was involved in the announcement of the OK POP museum finding a home across the street from Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa.
In 2017 the band turns 25 years old, Middle of Nowhere and Snowed In turn 20 and The Walk turns 10! We can’t wait to see what the guys have in store – it should be a big year!
The H-Bomb Show – Episode 12: Christmas Bomb
Nick and Holly read fans submissions on why they love Hanson! This episode is a bit longer than the others but definitely worth a listen!
Making the Play EP
Need a Poppy Hit of Holiday Nostalgia? Mmm-Bop Over to Hanson’s Snowed In.
Universal Mod Afw
Parents often extol the joys of seeing Christmas through their children’s eyes. Watching kiddos make proud, ugly ornaments and lose it over Santa’s surprises gives even hardened adults the chance to grasp onto some small thread of wonder each December. I don’t have any little ones onto whom I might project my need for comfort and joy this season, but I do have a connection to childhood that works nearly as well: Hanson’s seminal holiday opus, Snowed In.
The only Christmas album I own,Snowed In has all the weird and endearing attributes Hanson fans and frenemies will remember of the Oklahoma pop-rock trio: cheery guitars; the kinds of pleasing harmonies only siblings can create; whiny grunts and groans; and unplaceable accents, the brothers forming vowels in convoluted shapes no vocal coach in her right mind would recommend.
The trio does infectious white-boy renditions of “What Christmas Means to Me” and “Merry Christmas Baby,” as well as an original acoustic composition “At Christmas” that isn’t half bad at tugging crusty old heartstrings. On “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” the brothers replace a guitar riff with a heavenly “doodle-oo-bop-bop” I now sing over other versions of the song. There are a few duds I skip every year, like “Everybody Knows the Claus,” a rollicking fat-shaming ditty about how Santa used to be thin before he started eating deep-fried turkey and donuts. But the brothers’ nasal voices, filled with innocence without the creepiness of actual child singers, never wear on me.
Snowed In came out in November 1997, just six months after Hanson’s wildly successful national debut, Middle of Nowhere. (It was no doubt recorded lickety-split to ride the gargantuan coattails of “MmmBop.”) I was in fourth grade; my family had just moved several states away from the town where I was born and the state the majority of my enormous, beloved extended family called home. For the better part of the next decade, we’d drive south on Dec. 23, with me and my sister barricaded into the backseat with suitcases and presents. If you can picture a teen and a tween spending a peaceful six-plus hours trapped in a metal cage less than a foot apart in the days before smartphones, a single Gameboy between them, I envy the scope of your imagination.
But when we popped Snowed In into the CD player every year, usually somewhere around the Tappan Zee bridge, there was peace on Earth as far as our minivan was concerned. My sister and I sang along and bopped in our seats well into our late teens, even once my tastes were better suited to a Discman, an Incubus album, and an impervious scowl. Snowed In let me embrace the twinkly-eyed nonsense of the holiday season, no matter how cynical my worldview. It still does.
As I’ve gotten older, wiser, and more Scrooge-like by the year, I’ve taken increasing pleasure in consuming traditional bits of holiday fanfare. The part of me that tires of being a boss bitch with a finely tuned detachment from earnest displays of joy delights in cultural relics from Christmases of my simpler youth. When I yearn to feel safe and childlike, I consume something cheesy and corny. Christmas is a marvelous excuse.
Hanson’s holiday confection can work just as well to ignite cheer in someone who doesn’t share my specific memories. The band’s wholesome, Midwestern, probably-Christian-but-not-making-a-thing-about-it vibe was made for a holiday that asks us to embrace fluffy hats, major keys, and jingling bells. Hating on 2016 has become a cliché at this point, but truly, many of us are now in dire need of the un-ironic happiness that happy music can only provide at Christmastime. Let the perpetually pubescent Hanson brothers be your guide.
Reminder that Hanson’s “Snowed In” is the only ’90s Christmas album you’ll ever need
Getty
If you were lucky enough to come of age in the ’90s, then you know that it was a treasure trove of really awesome Christmas albums. From ‘NSYNC’s peppy Home for Christmas to Mariah Carey’s high-note shattering Merry Christmas to everything Trans-Siberian Orchestra, let’s just say it was a great decade to listen to the radio around the holidays.
However, from where we’re sitting, the greatest and most enduring Christmas album from that era — the one we can put on today and not have everyone at the party instantly recognize it’s from a long-ago decade — is clearly Hanson’s Snowed In. Released just six months after the band’s record-shattering debut Middle of Nowhere, Snowed In was the best-selling Christmas album that year — and since news broke this fall that the brothers are putting out a brand new Christmas album in 2017, we’re going to do you a public service and remind you of just how great it is.
First, let’s talk song selection. The boys went with a minimal amount of classic carols (a gorgeous, stripped-down medley of “O Holy Night/Silent Night/O Come All Ye Faithful”) and early 20th century crooner classics (“White Christmas” ends the album), relying way more heavily on the sound that had recently made them very famous: pop rock. They cover the traditionally rockin’ songs from the ’50s and ’60s that they grew up with — the boys’ parents raised them on the stuff, as well as on playing their own instruments from an absurdly young age — by Chuck Berry (“Run Rudolph Run”), the Beach Boys (“Little Saint Nick”), and Brenda Lee (“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”) with youthful teen boy vigor.
Also, while the album does boast a consistent sound that still makes it a smooth listen, it does let each brother shine as an individual. 14-year-old Taylor, the band’s de facto lead singer and, back then anyway, most popular brother, croons a heartfelt, puberty-addled rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” that is still an all-time best, and that song is covered about as much as “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is played at Macy’s from October to December.
Zac’s solo songs, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “What Christmas Means to Me,” lack the quasi-sexual yearning typical of Taylor’s, but they’re sweet, peppy, and infectious — and since he was only 11-years-old when the album was made, we’re glad he was the one singing about Christmas party hops instead of wanting Christmas love from girls.
Eldest brother Isaac, meanwhile — who kind of got the short end of the stick on Middle of Nowhere — ended up with the album’s most mature and meditative track: “At Christmas,” one of three original songs penned by the boys along with “Christmas Time,” which is good, and “Everybody Knows the Claus,” which is literally about Santa being fat and, well, not. “At Christmas” finds 16-year-old Isaac waxing nostalgic about spending Christmas with his family, which is essentially perfect for those of us who grew up with this album and are now missing the comfort and safety of our youth.
“Christmas Time” also leans heavily on nostalgia, with Taylor — of course! — adding a dose of sex by proclaiming he “needs a little lovin’ around Christmas time.” Because really, if anything, this album serves as undeniable proof that Hanson and their management team knew their (teen girl) audience and what they wanted (Taylor) back in 1997.
Basically, while Snowed In lacks a single as ubiquitous as Carey’s aforementioned behemoth or as bubblegum pop glorious as “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” by ‘NSYNC, overall it’s a fantastic selection for fans of Christmas music looking for something a little less cheesy and a lot more rock n’ roll. 
BTTI Packing Tips!
Once again it’s that time of year where many are gearing up to head to Hanson’s Back to the Island event in Jamaica at the beginning of the year. We have compiled a list of tips & tricks for those who will be attending.
-Check your cell phone carrier for international rates. You may be charged fees for using your phone internationally or your phone may not work. Some phones now can make calls via WiFi. The resort does have free WiFi available but it is stronger in some areas of the resort than others.
-Pack a pair of shorts / change of clothes if you’re coming from a colder area and want to be more comfortable once you arrive at the airport. (The buses to the resort this year did have AC (and WiFi).)
-Keep a pen and your passport handy to fill out custom forms on the plane! Blue or Black ink only.
-You will get a signed 8×10 as part of your package so you might want to bring a sturdy envelope to get it home safely in
-REPEL has mosquito/bug repellent in WIPE form which does not count as a liquid as far as TSA is concerned. If you need to open up some space in your liquids bag but want to stay protected from bites, this is an option. (You can also find “pen sized” bug repellent which will take up a lot less space in your liquid bags than most other options)
-Packing cubes!
-Know your return flight info or have it handy for when you land and get on the shuttle. Flight# and Time.
-Bring an extra white tshirt for Tie Dying if you don’t trust yourself on the TShirt given in the merch package or if you want to try 2 designs! Make sure it is 100% cotton.
If you have any tips we didn’t cover or are a first timer and have questions, leave a comment and we will update the post 🙂