Sugar Ray
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the band Sugar Ray. For the boxers, see Sugar Ray Leonard or Sugar Ray Robinson.
| Sugar Ray | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Shrinky Dinx |
| Origin | Newport Beach, California, United States |
| Genre(s) | Alternative metal (early), pop rock, alternative rock |
| Years active | 1992 – present |
| Label(s) | Atlantic (1995-2006) Pulse Recordings (2008-present) |
| Website | myspace.com/sugarray |
| Members | |
| Mark McGrath Rodney Sheppard Murphy Karges Stan Frazier Craig Bullock |
|
Sugar Ray is a rock band with members from Newport Beach and Orange County, California.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Early years
Sugar Ray formed in 1992 calling themselves The Shrinky Dinks, later having to change it (upon threat of lawsuit from the Milton Bradley Company, maker of the Shrinky Dinks toy) to Sugar Ray after the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. The band's debut album, Lemonade and Brownies, was released in 1995, though it failed to produce a major hit single. Their early work was strongly influenced by funk metal, pop, and alternative rock.[1] This first album leaned on experimenting with those many influences, combining genres.
After they gained fame with the 1997 album 'Floored' in 1998, the single "Mean Machine" off 'Lemonade and Brownies,' was featured as one of the soundtracks of the popular PlayStation game "Road Rash 3D", as well as the Nintendo 64 (Road Rash 64) version of the game. The song appeared randomly both in-game as well as in the menus.
[edit] Floored
Sugar Ray's first mainstream hit came in the summer of 1997 with their song "Fly," which was released on the album Floored and featured reggae artist Super Cat. "Fly" was notable for not sounding anything at all like the rest of the tracks on the album and received frequent radio play. As a result of the success of "Fly," Floored sold well and was certified double platinum. However, by the end of 1997, critics were skeptical that Sugar Ray could put out another successful song labeled them a one-hit wonder.[1] The same year, Sugar Ray was featured in the movie Father's Day, starring Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.
[edit] 14:59
Their 1999 album 14:59 was the reply to these accusations, with the title implying that their fifteen minutes of fame were not quite up — their 'fame clock' reading 14:59.[2] "Every Morning," which received widespread comparisons to "Fly," rose to similar success during the spring of 1999, reaching No. 3 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Their follow-up single "Someday" received extensive airplay later that year as well and reached No. 7 in the U.S. 14:59 outsold its predecessor and was certified triple platinum.
[edit] Sugar Ray and In the Pursuit of Leisure
Their 2001 self-titled album Sugar Ray produced another hit with "When It's Over" and reached the same level as their previous singles. Sugar Ray's 2003 effort In the Pursuit of Leisure, and the first single from that album, "Mr. Bartender (It's So Easy)" received a lukewarm reception. In 2005, Sugar Ray released a greatest hits album, with three new songs ("Shot of Laughter", "Time After Time" and "Psychedelic Bee").
[edit] Current status
In January 2006, Sugar Ray was released from their recording contract with Atlantic Records. "Into Yesterday" on the Surf's Up movie soundtrack was released in June 2007. The band has been touring Asia, most recently in Singapore in August 2007 where they headlined SingFest, the nation's first international music festival.[3]
In May 2008, Sugar Ray hinted in a Myspace blog that they were going to make an announcement that would "make all fans very, very happy". The announcement came on May 19, 2008, that the band would be entering the studio to record their first album of new material since 2003. It was also announced that the band signed a new record deal with Pulse Recordings and that the new album should be released in the summer of 2009.[4]
Sugar Ray appeared on the May 18, 2008, on the season 3 finale of American Dad, titled "Spring Break-Up", as themselves, playing "Fly" at a Spring Break party. They also starred in the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie as themselves performing the song 'Words to Me'.
On March 6, 2009, Mark McGrath posted an update on Facebook announcing that a new album, titled Music for Cougars, will be released on July 21. The first single is "Boardwalk".[5]
[edit] Band members
- Mark McGrath - Vocals, guitar
- Rodney Sheppard - Guitar, vocals
- Murphy Karges (born Matthew Murphy Karges) - Bass guitar
- Stan Frazier - Drums, percussion, guitar, vocals
- Craig Bullock (DJ Homicide) - turntables, programming (joined in 1996)
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | AUS | AUT | |||
| 1995 | Lemonade and Brownies
|
— | — | — | |
| 1997 | Floored
|
12 | — | — |
|
| 1999 | 14:59
|
17 | 19 | 24 |
|
| 2001 | Sugar Ray
|
6 | — | 54 |
|
| 2003 | In the Pursuit of Leisure
|
29 | — | — | |
| 2009 | Music for Cougars
|
||||
| "—" denotes released that failed to chart or weren't released | |||||
[edit] Compilation albums
| Year | Album | US |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | The Best of Sugar Ray
|
136 |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions[6][7] | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. | U.S. Top 40 |
U.S. Adult T40 |
U.S. Main |
U.S. Mod |
UK |
||||||
| 1995 | "Mean Machine" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Lemonade and Brownies | |||
| 1996 | "Iron Mic" | — | — | — | — | — | 135 | ||||
| 1997 | "Fly" | — | 1 | 1 | 29 | 1 | 58 | Floored | |||
| "RPM" | — | — | — | — | 35 | — | |||||
| 1999 | "Every Morning" | 3 | 1 | 1 | 38 | 1 | 10 | 14:59 | |||
| "Someday" | 7 | 3 | 3 | — | 7 | 90 | |||||
| "Falls Apart" | 29 | 7 | 16 | — | 5 | — | |||||
| 2000 | "Aim for Me" | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 2001 | "When It's Over" | 13 | 9 | 2 | — | — | 32 | Sugar Ray | |||
| "Answer the Phone" | 112 [8] |
39 | 33 | — | — | — | |||||
| 2002 | "Ours" | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 2003 | "Mr. Bartender (It's So Easy)" | — | 38 | 20 | — | — | — | In the Pursuit of Leisure | |||
| "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" | — | 39 | 19 | — | — | — | |||||
| 2005 | "Shot of Laughter" | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Best of Sugar Ray | |||
| 2007 | "Into Yesterday" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Surf's Up soundtrack | |||
| 2009 | "Boardwalk" | Music for Cougars | |||||||||
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart. | |||||||||||
[edit] References
- ^ a b Huey, Steve (2002). "Sugar Ray - Biography". allmusic. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hjfqxqehldae~T1. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
- ^ "Sugar Ray Coasts Low-Riding Groove For "Every Morning"". MTV News. 1999-01-26. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1434704/19990126/sugar_ray.jhtml. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
- ^ Mak, Lennat (2007-08-15). "Singfest 2007". MTV Asia. http://www.mtvasia.com/Review/Event/E20070815001577.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
- ^ Karges, Murphy (2008-12-10). "November/December Update". Sugar Ray Blog. Wordpress. http://sugarray.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/novemberdecember-update/. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
- ^ billboard.com
- ^ "Sugar Ray - Charts & Awards - Billboard Singles". allmusic. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hjfqxqehldae~T51. Retrieved on 2009-01-18.
- ^ British chart
- ^ Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
