The Goo Goo Dolls are an American rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo, New York, by guitarist and vocalist John Rzeznik, bassist and vocalist Robby Takac, and drummer George Tutuska. Mike Malinin was the band's drummer from January 1995 until December 2013. Although renowned for their commercially successful 1998 single "Iris", they have had several other notable and popular singles including "Name" from 1995's A Boy Named Goo, "Broadway", "Black Balloon" and "Slide" from 1998's Dizzy Up The Girl, an album which produced five successful singles, and "Here Is Gone", "Sympathy" and "Big Machine" from 2002's Gutterflower. The Goo Goo Dolls have had 14 top ten singles on various charts, and have sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.

In October 2012, "Iris" was ranked #1 on Billboard's "Top 100 Pop Songs 1992–2012" chart, which also featured Goo Goo Dolls hits "Slide", ranking at #9, and "Name" at #24. Their biggest hit, "Iris", from the City of Angels soundtrack, spent nearly 12 straight months on the Billboard charts and held the number one position on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for 18 weeks. The first single from their 2010 album, Something for the Rest of Us, "Home", extended the band's record to 14 top ten hits at the hot AC radio format (more than any other artist in the history of that format). The band's newest album, Magnetic, was released on June 11, 2013.