John Henry

[edit ] Loading... If loading fails, click here . See Discography Glossary for definition of various terms. John Henry is They Might Be Giants ' fifth studio album, released in 1994 on Elektra . It was the first album that John Flansburgh and John Linnell recorded with a backing band. Feeling that John and John had taken the band as far as it could go with reel-to-reel tape recordings and drum machines, Susan Drew of the band's label Elektra persuaded them to recruit a live band for the second phase of their year long tour in support of Apollo 18 . For their first live band, the Giants recruited Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone , Kurt Hoffman of The Ordinaires on keyboards and reeds and Jonathan Feinberg on drums . John Henry would be the band's first studio album recorded with their touring band. The sound was quite different from previous albums, many of the tracks were guitar-heavy and live horns were used on several tracks, creating a harder-rocking feel and allowing them to better mold the moods of the songs. Drums on the album were handled by new band member Brian Doherty , Jon Feinberg having left after the end of Apollo 18 tour, and two tracks feature Maimone's replacement on bass, Joe Jackson Band veteran Graham Maby . Paul Fox "wikipedia:Paul Fox (record producer)") co-produced the album with the band. According to former TMBG tour manager Mike Kelly in the Gigantic (A Tale Of Two Johns) "Gigantic (A Tale Of Two Johns)") documentary, some longtime fans of the band became upset by the changes and even went so far as to stage boycotts of the band's live shows,[[1]]( though John Flansburgh states he did not witness this happening at the time and believes it may be apocryphal.[[2]]( To generate excitement for the album, John Linnell created a HyperCard stack for Apple Macintosh that was released in May 1994 and distributed on alt.music.tmbg , the original They Might Be Giants website and Elektra 's TMBG page. It contained previews described as "interpretive snippets in extremely crappy lo-fidelity" of the album's 20 songs, which consisted of short instrumental and vocal samples pitch-modulated and played in sequence to resemble melodies of the album tracks. A web recreation of the HyperCard stack can be played with here . In an event that would repeat with TMBG's next album ( Factory Showroom ), a bootlegged demo tape of eight tracks from John Henry' s studio sessions was eventually leaked among fans. These demos existed only in cassette form prior to the release of Podcast 27A in 2007 , which included high-fidelity versions of seven of the tracks. Full-band studio demos were recorded with Pat Dillett for all of the songs on the album, with the exception of "Stomp Box ". In 2012, all these demos were collected and released officially as John Henry Demos to the Instant Fan Club , followed later by a CD and vinyl release in 2018. John Henry peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard 200, and was the band's highest placement on that chart until Join Us debuted at No. 32 in July 2011, though it only spent four weeks on the chart. At the time, this was the shortest span for which any They Might Be Giants album had charted with the exception of the debut album "They Might Be Giants (Album)") , which failed to chart. "Snail Shell "Snail Shell (Single)") " had a successful run on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, peaking at 19, and spending 8 weeks overall on the chart. In addition, "AKA Driver "AKA Driver (Promo)") " was released as a promotional single, but did not chart. Originally released on CD and cassette, John Henry was the first They Might Be Giants album not to receive a vinyl pressing upon its initial release (though the prior album Apollo 18 ' s initial vinyl release was EU exclusive). Nearly two decades later in 2013, John Henry received a 2LP vinyl pressing of 1,500 copies on Asbestos Records , which became a collector's item in the years that followed after going out-of-print. In October 2025, They Might Be