Sugar Ray

Sugar Ray crystallized the sound of Southern Californian pop during the Y2K era. Beginning their life as a mischievous nu-metal outfit with a shameless debt to Red Hot Chili Peppers, the group sharpened and expanded their sound with 1997's Floored. Among the departures on Floored was the breezy reggae tune "Fly," a song that became an unexpected number one hit. Sugar Ray cannily decided to double down on their pop side on 1999's 14:59, an album whose very title showed that the band were in on the joke (courtesy of its wink to Andy Warhol's notorious axiom that everybody would be famous for 15 minutes). Remarkably, 14:59 and its hits "Every Morning" and "Someday" opened up a lasting career for Sugar Ray and lead singer Mark McGrath, whose stardom soon eclipsed that of the rest of the band. As the group racked up hit singles on both the Billboard Top 40 and Adult Contemporary chart, McGrath became a fixture on reality TV, running the board on Rock & Roll Jeopardy and co-hosting the entertainment news program Extra. Once the big hits dried up, McGrath and guitarist Rodney Sheppard -- the only other member of Sugar Ray to stay with the band through all its incarnations -- happily played to the nostalgia market, while still making music that played to their sunny sweet spot.

From 🇺🇸 United States