"Black Balloon" is the third single to be released from the Dizzy Up the Girl album by the Goo Goo Dolls. The album came out in September 1998, but the song was released as a single early on in the following year. This song ranked sixteenth on the US Top 100.
This song, according to the band's frontman Johnny Rzeznik, is about a woman with a heroin addiction and how her lover is desperately trying to save her. He has also said that is about "seeing someone you love that is so great just screw up so bad." Speculation as to the song's subject has included bassist Robby Takac's ex-wife (who overdosed on heroin).
Like many other songs by the Goo Goo Dolls, "Black Balloon" uses an unusual alternate tuning. Several electric guitars used in the introduction and the acoustic rhythm guitar are tuned to an open D-flat fifth chord.
The video for the song opens with a woman blowing smoke into a soap bubble (a "black balloon"). It then focuses on scenes from a 50's or 60's era swim club.
