Song · Goo Goo Dolls
“Black Balloon” by Goo Goo Dolls
From the album Dizzy Up the Girl (1998)
“Black Balloon” by Goo Goo Dolls appears on 11 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 1999 and 2005. It was first released in 1998 on the album Dizzy Up the Girl. Its best result is #12 on the WEQX Top 102.7 of 1999. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #54 alternative song of 1999, #3,614 alternative song of all time and #421 of the '90s.
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The Goo Goo Dolls pulled "Black Balloon" off their sixth album, Dizzy Up the Girl, as its fourth single in June 1999, and it's the rare radio ballad with a needle hidden in it. John Rzeznik wrote it about a woman sinking into heroin addiction and the lover straining to drag her back out, which gives that soaring chorus a desperate edge the band's glossier moments never had.
Rob Cavallo produced it with the band and Jack Joseph Puig mixed it, and the sound is all shimmer: stacked electric guitars and an acoustic rhythm part tuned to an open D-flat chord, one of the band's trademark oddball tunings, with Robby Takac's bass and Mike Malinin's drums keeping it steady underneath. It climbed to number 3 in Canada and 16 in the US.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 100 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1999 | 107 |
| 1999 | 84 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1999 | 106 |
| 1999 | 40 | Q101 Chicago, IL | Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1999 | 101 |
| 1999 | 65 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1999 | 100 |
| 1999 | 44 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1999 | 107 |
| 1999 | 39 | 89X Detroit, MI / Windsor, ON | 89X Top 89 Songs of 1999 | 89 |
| 1999 | 12 | 102.7 WEQX Southern Vermont and the Capital District of New York (Albany) | WEQX Top 102.7 of 1999 | 103 |
| 1999 | 47 | Radio & Records United States (national airplay chart) | Radio & Records Top 104 Songs of 1999 | 104 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 916 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 2000 | 56 | 103.3 The Edge | 103.3 The Edge Top 103 New Rock Songs of the Millennium | 103 |
| 2005 | 209 | 99X | 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005) | 1000 |
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