The Ocean Blue arrived as the 1980s drew to close, and their debut record on the famed Sire Records label in 1989 seemed to summarize the best of the musical decade. The band of four teenagers from Hershey, Pennsylvania quickly achieved widespread acclaim and radio & MTV airplay, with top 10 Modern Rock/College Radio hits like Between Something and Nothing and Drifting, Falling. They followed their debut release with the dreamy and atmospheric Cerulean, which included perhaps their most beloved song, Ballerina Out of Control, and followed that with their highest charting pop album Beneath the Rhythm and Sound and the single Sublime, featuring a video of the band in the sublime landscape of Iceland. The band's fourth record for Mercury/PolyGram, See The Ocean Blue, was a mid-90s departure to a more guitar rock sound of the 60s and 70s but with the band's 80s DNA peeking through. After a busy decade of recording and touring, the band left the majors in the late 90s. Several independent releases and related touring followed in the 2000s, including 2000's Davy Jones Locker and 2004's Waterworks, and wider international touring. In 2013, after much anticipation, the band released their first full length record in 10 years, Ultramarine, on Korda Records, a Minneapolis-based label cooperative the band helped launch that same year. The record was a welcome return for fans of the band as well as a younger generation of like-minded fans, and garnered widespread praise as one of their very best albums.  In 2015, the band worked with Sire and Rhino Records to reissue their first 3 Sire albums on vinyl. The band marked the occasion by performing the first 2 albums in their entirety at limited concerts throughout the U.S. In 2016, the band did a South American Tour where some of their most passionate fans reside.

The Ocean Blue

May 2, 2025

The Ocean Blue, Brian Tighe of The Hang Ups

The Ocean Blue