Behind the Song: “Mr. Jones,” Adam Duritz of Counting Crows

There’s a great deal about the famed band, Counting Crows, that remains iconic since their 1993 debut LP release, August And Everything After. And perhaps at the top of that list is the band’s first commercial single, “Mr. Jones.” To say the track was everywhere in the mid-‘90s would be an understatement. Radio stations from rock to top 40 played the cut seemingly every hour, or more often. 

“Mr. Jones,” and its ubiquitous music video, then kicked off a series of hits from Counting Crows, including “A Long December,” “Omaha,” “Rain King” and “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby.” But even to this day, maybe no song is as memorable or as important to the Bay Area-born group. With frontman, Adam Duritz, singing with his emotional, vulnerable, jostling voice as he sported his trademark floppy hair, the band rose to immense fame. 

Counting Crows, which has a new EP out this summer called, Butter Miracle Suite One, remains an important group both for those who grew up with the band in the ‘90s and for new fans. American Songwriter caught up with Duritz to talk to him about the single that set everything off—“Mr. Jones”—and how it changed his life.