Floored

Last updated

Floored
SR-Floored.jpg
Studio album by
Sugar Ray
ReleasedJune 24, 1997
Recorded1997 [1]
Studio NRG Recording Studios (North Hollywood, California)
Genre
Length43:05
Label
Producer David Kahne
Sugar Ray chronology
Lemonade and Brownies
(1995)		Floored
(1997)		 14:59
(1999)
Singles from Floored
  1. "Fly"
    Released: May 16, 1997 [2]
  2. "RPM"
    Released: November 3, 1997 [3]

Floored is the second studio album by American rock band Sugar Ray, released on June 24, 1997. It includes the hit song "Fly", and another moderately successful single, "RPM". Two versions of "Fly" appear on the album, one of them featuring reggae artist Super Cat. Floored is the first album to feature DJ Homicide as an official member whereas he was a guest musician in the previous album Lemonade and Brownies.

Contents

Production

Background and early writing sessions

Prior to releasing their reggae-influenced pop rock single "Fly" , the band feared Atlantic Records would drop them due to the underperformance of their 1995 debut Lemonade and Brownies Drummer Stan Frazier recalled in 1999 that it was "really depressing", [4] noting that the band came close to being dropped from the label. [5] In 1994, Sugar Ray had signed a two album deal with Atlantic which was worth two million dollars, but the label were considering buying out their contract due to the commercial failure of Lemonade and Brownies. [6] The album had seen some minor success in Europe, but fared very poorly in the United States, where it failed to chart. The band ended up doing seven tours in Europe to support Lemonade and Brownies, but did only a single one in the United States, where they were playing in front of mostly empty clubs. [7] [6] When Atlantic were on the verge of dropping Sugar Ray, a member of their metal department helped Sugar Ray get an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in New York City. They showed up to the studio with a group of women they knew from New York, staying on the program for an hour and a half. During their appearance, Stern's co-host Robin Quivers commented on how handsome McGrath was, and the band performed a cover of a song called "Psychedelic Bee", which Stern himself had written. [6] The appearance increased their exposure, and Atlantic wanted to build off this momentum. [6] Following the appearance on The Howard Stern Show, they ended up being given a second chance to go to New York for a month, where they would write new material. [5] [6]

Early in the writing process of Floored, singer Mark McGrath pushed for the band to make more scream-oriented metal songs, but the other members preferred melody-driven music. Disagreements over the album's intended sound led to McGrath storming out of a practice session in New York. [8] While McGrath was away, his bandmates started writing what would become "Fly". [5] [4] Frazier reflected, "we were looking for an identity, and we just didn't have it yet. So we're locked in this recording studio, writing all this heavy music, and that’s when the shit hit the fan, because Mark, didn’t like the songs we were writing and just decided, 'I'm out of here'. So he disappeared into the New York night for weeks." [5] Frazier came up with the chorus "I just want to fly" since he was frustrated and wanted to "jump out the window and fly out of New York and go somewhere else." [5] McGrath remembered in 2015 that they had been touring with heavy bands such as Deftones, downset. and Monster Magnet, and said that "Fly" was a song that "kind of came out of nowhere." McGrath adds, "setting up [Floored] we said 'listen, we have a bit of a foothold in the metal world, let’s concentrate on that, make some heavier stuff', but at the same time we were getting better as songwriters." [9] When McGrath first heard Frazier sing parts of "Fly" to him in New York, he strongly disliked it, and almost quit the band over it. McGrath later worked on the song himself, and started liking it more. [6] In a July 1997 interview with MTV, McGrath said that the band immediately knew "Fly" would be a single as soon as they recorded it. [10] Shortly after the song was released, McGrath incorrectly claimed that the lyrics were inspired from an A&R department meeting, where he saw a fly land on the left nostril of Atlantic Records senior VP Jason Flom. [11]

Recording

McGrath was a fan of Southern Californian ska punk band Sublime, and Floored would end up being produced by David Kahne, who had previously worked with Sublime. McGrath claims he had only been a casual fan of them, until they released their 1996 self-titled breakthrough. [1] Kahne replaced Sugar Ray's previous producer from Lemonade and Brownies, Joseph McGinty "McG" Nichol, who was a friend of the band. Regarding Kahne and Sublime, McGrath said in October 1997, "I love that band. We got David Kahne to produce our album because of his work on the Sublime album. I don't think if you heard our record you'd think every song is like Sublime's, but I agree there are elements in there. 'Fly' [definitely] took on more reggae overtones as a result of working with Kahne. He produces in a certain way, and he is responsible for the Sublime sound." [12] Pre-production work on the album was finished by early 1997, and Kahne booked them to record Floored at NRG Studios in the San Fernando Valley and Sunset Studio in Los Angeles. The studios were booked for six weeks, which was longer than the time they were given to record Lemonade and Brownies. [1] When recording started with Kahne in 1997, McGrath said that they still only had pieces of songs written, but claims that they "felt good" about the still-yet unrecorded "Fly". [6]

Prior to making the album, Sugar Ray requested to be moved to Lava Records, which is a sublabel of Atlantic that Jason Flom founded in 1995. In an October 1997 interview with Hits magazine, Flom said he had been a fan of the band for years, and was excited when they requested to be moved from Atlantic to Lava, since it meant he would be working with them. Flom had previously helped break Lava's Matchbox Twenty into the mainstream, and added that even before Sugar Ray recorded "Fly" with Kahne, he knew they had the potential to become successful. He said, "we brought in David Kahne to produce, and I felt very strongly that if we had one song we could really hang our hats on, it would break the band. I knew if people got a chance to see them live, they would be hooked." [11]

Two versions of "Fly" appear on the album, with the first featuring Jamaican musician Super Cat and the second excluding his parts. It was McGrath's idea to have another artist appear on the song. Super Cat was well-known in the dancehall genre, and McGrath had come across his work. He wanted to have Super Cat on the song since he felt like he fit the sunny "island vibe" of the song. [1] Kahne had previously produced for Super Cat, and was able to get him on the phone. Within five days, he was recording his parts for the song in Los Angeles. [10] Super Cat toasted over "Fly", with toasting being a form of Jamaican rap that predated American hip hop. [1]

Kahne tried to push the band during the recording, and often demanded multiple takes, which sometimes led to them leaving recording sessions with resentment towards him. [1] Guitarist Rodney Sheppard said they were "working all day, every day" during the six weeks they spent recording Floored. Regarding Kahne, Sheppard said "he's like a robot. He didn't even go to the bathroom. He just sits and works sixteen, seventeen hours a day, every day until it was finished. You couldn't ask a guy to be more dedicated to a project." [1] Bassist Murphy Karges labelled the song "High Anxiety" as a "lab experiment" in 2019. [13] He recalls that it originated from McGrath and Kahne, saying that Kahne "kind of took it under his wing to create this interesting weird song that had all these parts in it." [13] "Breathe" and "Invisible" were two of the more metal-influenced songs on the album, and both were rarely played live, with Karges saying that he considers "Invisible" to be an album filler. He commented, "sometimes you run out of ideas and you need another track to fill out the time, so then you just dump a bunch of random ideas, riffs and changes into a pot, stir it up, then pour it out onto the record. Thus is how 'Invisible' came to be." [14] According to Karges, he and his bandmates later made fun of "Breathe" for being a "bad song". He said, "this would be the song we'd throw under the bus. We'd talk about a hit or something, and then we'd go 'and there's always Breathe'." [15] "Breathe" featured subtle keyboard parts from Kahne and was one of the songs where DJ Homicide was most prominent. Kahne wanted Floored to have a more layered sound than Lemonade and Brownies, making full use of studio tools and different instruments. [1] The heavier songs on Lemonade and Brownies were written in more of a straightforward manner, since the band wanted them to be easily recreated live. [1] Lemonade and Brownies also included several light R&B-influenced songs and a country song which were never performed live, and Karges said they only included those songs since they thought it would be funny to do so. [16]

The song "American Pig" was another of the more metal-influenced tracks on Floored, but was played live far more frequently than "Breathe" and "Invisible" were. Karges remembered that they enjoyed playing it in Europe, because "we were sort of American Pigs ourselves". [17] Frazier said the lyrics were inspired by the first of their seven tours in Europe for Lemonade and Brownies. For breakfast, the band would eat American-style meals like hash browns, which differed from the breakfasts the natives were eating. He said, "we'd wake up in the morning and go: 'let's have breakfast', and you have all these Europeans having a continental breakfast. And we just realized, we are these big 'American Pigs'." [1]

Karges claims that despite playing bass, he was coming up with many of the guitar parts for this album. [18] However, he also noted that the main riff to "Cash" originated through McGrath. [18] The song was regularly performed live by the band, and has a fast-paced hardcore punk sound, running at only a minute and a half. [18] "Tap, Twist, Snap" and "Speed Home California" were among some of the other songs on Floored that had a fast punk-influenced sound. The title to "Speed Home California" is a play on "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, [1] and McGrath came up with the lyrics, which were about how the band started to miss California while being away on tour for Lemonade and Brownies. [19] The lyrics were inspired by one night where the band felt isolated while on tour in Germany, since they couldn't speak the language and had to deal with the cold, snowy weather, which contrasted the sunnier weather of Southern California. [1]

The album features a cover of the 1981 new wave song "Stand and Deliver", by Adam and the Ants. It was decided that the band would do this cover during the pre-production period, before they started the recording process with Kahne. [1] McGrath said in July 1997 that, "we grew up in Southern California listening to KROQ and Adam and the Ants and all that new wave stuff. The label knew we wanted to do a cover and they gave us all this Parliament-Funkadelic stuff and '70s soul collections and we just thought the Ants were closer to our attitude. It's so weird and glam." [10] It is one of the lighter songs on the album, although at the time Frazier said "we did quite a different version from the actual original. Kind of a space mix." [1] The main guitar riff to the penultimate track "Right Direction" originated during a live show Sugar Ray had played with House of Pain at the House of Blues. [20] It was the last original song on Floored, which closes with the second version of "Fly". Their next album 14:59 would open with the similarly titled "New Direction", which was written in the style of a death metal song, and parodying the success of "Fly" and how the band were expected to make more songs like that. [20]

Around the time the record was being made, the band appeared in the Warner Bros. comedy film Fathers' Day , which starred Robin Williams and Billy Crystal. The film was primarily shot in Los Angeles, and also featured pop punk band The Muffs. Sugar Ray and The Muffs were both signed to labels which were part of Warner Music Group, which itself was then part of the same corporate conglomerate as Warner Bros. Pictures. Fathers' Day would end up being released within a month of Floored in 1997, and its release date coincided with when "Fly" was first added to radio stations. [21] McGrath told Stereogum in 2023 that his band were grateful to be appearing in a major movie, since Sugar Ray were still not very well-known when it was being filmed. He added, "they weren’t looking for a big band. They were looking for a band that people kind of knew, but it was a legitimate band, but wasn't huge, because they didn’t want a huge band to take away from the movie." [22] It underperformed at the box office, and whenever McGrath ran into Billy Crystal, he would joke to Crystal about wanting to do a Fathers' Day 2. [22] Sugar Ray later went on to appear in the 2002 Scooby-Doo film, which was shot in Australia. This film was also produced by Warner Bros., and made after the band had become much more well-known. [23]

Musical style

The album has been categorized as funk metal, [24] [25] [26] nu metal [27] and alternative metal. [28] It features elements of heavy metal, funk, new wave, reggae, pop, punk, R&B, ska and hip hop. [29] [30] [31] [32] The AV Club in 2017 labelled it as a "funk-punk-alt-metal-lite-FM-pop mishmash". [33] In a July 1997 article about their role in the film Fathers' Day, British publication Kerrang! referred to Sugar Ray as "super-sexy US rap-rocking rascals". [34] Regarding their mixture of styles, McGrath said in October 1997, "one thing that makes Sugar Ray relevant is the fact that we have a chameleonlike quality to us in that there's nothing we can't do. Floored is a testament to that." [12] In July 1997, he also said that the song "Fly" fit with their philosophy of mixing different genres. [10] McGrath added that people hearing the song on the radio might interpret it as the band changing direction, but noted that "if they check out the record, they'll see it's all over the place". [10] In this same interview, Rodney Sheppard claimed that their diversity of styles was in part due to the fact that all members contributed to the writing process, but he noted that Floored had a "more focused" mix of styles than Lemonade and Brownies did. [10] Stan Frazier said in a September 1997 Spin interview that "we're a rock band with our primary influences in punk rock and heavy metal. But we recorded R&B [songs] on the last album." Frazier believed "Fly" was similar to the R&B songs they had done on Lemonade and Brownies, since it was also being placed alongside much heavier songs. The band referred to the R&B songs as "vibe tracks" when they were recording Lemonade and Brownies, [16] and Frazier added that with "Fly", the band had "looked at it as just another vibe track". [35] Frazier also noted in this interview that Sugar Ray were being labelled as imitators of Sublime, because of "Fly" and the fact they got David Kahne to produce their album. He said that while the bands did share musical similarities, the comparison between the two mainly came from "growing up in beach communities". [35]

In their June 1997 review, the Los Angeles Times believed the album derived influence from Korn, Rage Against the Machine and the Vandals. [30] In another article from 1999, the Los Angeles Times characterized this era of Sugar Ray as having a "harder edged punk-funk sound", and claimed it to be derivative of not only Rage Against the Machine but also the Red Hot Chili Peppers. [36] Ron Hart of CMJ New Music Report considered their sound on this album to be "metallic funk" in December 1998, [37] while Spin referred to them as a punk-funk band in November 1997. [38] Geoffrey Hines of The Washington Post similarly noted the album's mixture of funk, punk and metal. In July 1997, he wrote that "Sugar Ray are young enough to have learned a few lessons from such fellow Southern California bands as the pop-punkers Green Day, the funk-rockers Fishbone and the ska-punkers Sublime", adding that the band "borrows ingredients from all three role models and then thickens the sound by playing everything with the cartoonish hyperbole and heavy-metal pummeling of Kiss." [39] Billboard claimed in September 1997 that the song "Fly" was not representative of the rest of the album, saying "while the band has undoubtedly become tied to the track due to its widespread coverage, it is only one facet of Sugar Ray's musical persona." [40] In an August 1997 interview, Murphy Karges said he didn't want people to "flip out and think that there are 16 'Fly's' on this disk." Regarding the new type of fans the band was attracting with "Fly", Karges said "you just hope that there's something else on the record that they can dig." [4] McGrath claimed in 2009 that he considered Floored to be heavier than Lemonade and Brownies, saying that "I think the common misconception with that first record is that it was really hard. Half the songs were some of the mellowest stuff we ever wrote — R&B songs with falsetto vocals." He added that, "it was funny; people would buy the [next] record Floored expecting fifteen 'Fly' and they got the hardest record we ever made." [41]

Due to the massive amounts of strong language in the songs "Cash" and "American Pig", some copies of the album contain the "Parental Advisory" label. It contains the early label that can be peeled off the case.[ citation needed ] On the clean version of the album, all swear words are blanked out. It is their last album to feature explicit language and their last heavy album before they moved toward a more pop friendly approach. [31]

Touring and promotion

The band toured throughout 1997 and 1998 to support Floored. Sugar Ray performed at the Blockbuster Rockfest festival in Fort Worth, Texas on June 21, 1997, which was televised. The event also featured artists such as Bush, Counting Crows, Jewel and No Doubt. [42] In July, Sugar Ray performed at the 1997 edition of the punk-focused Warped Tour, playing alongside Limp Bizkit, who released their debut Three Dollar Bill, Y'all that same month. [43] Sugar Ray knew Limp Bizkit through DJ Lethal, who served as a co-producer on Lemonade and Brownies when he was still in hip hop group House of Pain, since the members of Sugar Ray were fans of House of Pain. Three Dollar Bill, Y'all included a song called "Indigo Flow" which referenced Sugar Ray and several other musicians that were friends with Limp Bizkit.

Following the Warped Tour, Sugar Ray invited Smash Mouth to join them on a run of shows in the United States. [44] Smash Mouth had also just released their debut album Fush Yu Mang , and the media were comparing them to Sugar Ray, due to being another lighthearted ska-influenced band from Southern California. [44] Sugar Ray had never performed alongside Smash Mouth prior to these shows, and would go on to tour with them frequently in the following years. [45] [46] Sugar Ray's crowds began to greatly increase around this period, with their previous American tour for Lemonade and Brownies having been done in very small clubs as a result of its poor sales. In a July 1997 review of a Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray concert, MTV compared the appearance of Mark McGrath to actor Ethan Hawke, and said that young women "packed the front row [and] were screaming and grabbing for a hold" of McGrath. [44] As "Fly" continued to gain popularity, they were chosen as the musical guests for the July 24, 1997 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien , where they performed the song. [47] On September 7, 1997, Sugar Ray again performed alongside Limp Bizkit at the second edition of the KMYZ Edgefest in Tulsa. The lineup that year also included Artificial Joy Club, Helmet, Our Lady Peace, Reel Big Fish and Faith No More (who performed immediately after Sugar Ray). [48] That same month, the music of Sugar Ray and Faith No More was featured together as part of an episode of Westwood One's Off The Record program, which focused on the two bands. A CD of this broadcast was also made. Between October and December 1997, Sugar Ray toured America with 311 and Incubus, who at that point had not yet released their breakthrough single "Drive". Incubus were initially only meant to perform on the first leg of this tour, but the crowd response to them was so great that they stayed for the remainder of it. [49] [50] Other artists that Sugar Ray shared bills with during the Floored touring cycle include The Aquabats, Blink-182, Chumbawamba, Days of the New, Everclear, Green Day, Hed PE, Kiss, L7, The Nixons, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sarah McLachlan, Snot and Weezer. [51]

At one 1997 show at Club 329 in Fullerton, California, the band took to the stage hours late since McGrath was in an altered state. When the audience grew angry towards Sugar Ray, McGrath responded by telling them that "all you guys out there are jealous of me 'cause your girlfriends would rather fuck me than you.'" McGrath eventually fell offstage, leaving bassist Murphy Karges and guitarist Rodney Sheppard to fill in on vocals. [52] McGrath had a similar crowd incident during the tour for 1999's 14:59 , where he was intoxicated and berated the crowd before dropping his pants and exposing himself. [53] In a 2000 interview with the Tampa Bay Times , McGrath reflected on incidents like these, saying "sometimes I drink too much and do stupid things, and I try to run away from the pain of dealing with stuff. Sometimes that works for me, and sometimes it doesn't." [53]

Sugar Ray contributed the song "Rivers" to the Scream 2 soundtrack album, released on November 18, 1997. The song can also be heard in the credits of the film itself, which was released to theaters on December 12, 1997. It was an ode to Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo and written in the style of a Weezer song. [54]

Commercial response

Floored went to number 12 on the Billboard 200 on August 30, 1997. [55] Within a month of the album's release, "Fly" had become extremely popular. [56] It went on to top the Radio Songs chart (and spending 59 weeks on the chart), [57] the Pop Songs chart, [58] and the Alternative Songs chart. [59] In August 1997, Floored was certified gold in the United States, [60] and in September of that year, 510,000 copies had been sold. [61] By December 1997, sales had increased to 1,200,000 copies. [62] In February 1998, Floored was certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling 2,000,000 copies in the United States. [63]

"RPM", the second single from Floored, had a heavier sound similar to the rest of the album, and was far less successful than "Fly". McGrath later recalled that several years prior to making Floored, Rodney Sheppard's girlfriend had gone to see a psychic, and she predicted that the band would "become an overnight sensation with one song and they will fade as quickly as they rise up." McGrath said in 1999 that, "I always remembered that. It sure made us nervous after having only one hit from Floored." [64]

The commercial success of Floored gave the band members enough money to start living separately from each other. When Sugar Ray were making Lemonade and Brownies and Floored, they had all shared a house together in the Los Angeles suburb of Hancock Park.. [1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [31]
Kerrang! Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [65]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [30]
Rock Hard 6.5/10 [66]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [67]
The Village Voice B− [32]

Floored received generally positive reviews. Robert Christgau gave the album a B− in December 1997, writing, "[Sugar Ray is] the nearest thing to a fresh young rock band the market or the 'underground' has kicked up this year." [32] The Los Angeles Times wrote on June 28, 1997 that "Sugar Ray has a knack for catchy borrowing and for hard-rock crunch colored by pop hooks and a deejay's deft scratch effects. The single 'Fly' is a perfect summer confection that's as irresistible as it is lightweight." [30] AllMusic wrote that "Sugar Ray's second album, Floored, is a noticeable improvement from Lemonade and Brownies . The group's fusion of metal, funk, reggae, and rap is seamless and confident, partially because Sugar Ray now emphasize the groove, not the guitars. The group still has difficulty writing a consistent batch of songs, but its hooks are stronger than ever." [31] The Washington Post state in their July 1997 review that the band "are juvenile, politically incorrect and derivative but nonetheless boast an infectious energy and enthusiasm." [39] In the October 18, 1997 issue of Kerrang! , the publication compared "Fly" to Sublime, and said "so it's finally happening for Sugar Ray. With a fanny magnet like Mark McGrath upfront, it was only a matter of time until MTV picked up these hard rockin 'n' rappin dudes from Orange County, California." [68]

A mixed review at the time came from the Tampa Bay Times, who called Floored a "bland alt-metal record" in July 1997. [53] In a September 1997 review of a Sugar Ray concert, Variety wrote that "the quintet's low-brow approach — a mix of metal, hip-hop, rock and reggae, all peppered by spastic singer Mark McGrath's puerile lyrics — aims only to be fun, guilt-free entertainment." [69]

Legacy

Entertainment Weekly's Rebecca Ascher-Walsh wrote in 1999 that the album made Sugar Ray "the 1997 Furbys of the MTV spring-break crowd." [70] That same year, CNN described the song "Fly" as turning Mark McGrath into a "sex symbol". [71] In 2013, Angelica Leichardt of OC Weekly criticized their change in direction following Floored, remarking "perhaps they should have stayed a funk-metal band, which is where their sound originated from, because anything would be better than the junk they put out [afterwards]." [24] Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine had a more positive view of the band's later change in direction, saying in 2003 that "they not only abandoned funk-metal the second they had a hit with the breezy 'Fly', they ran with their newfound success, turning into the sunny, good-time summertime band that American pop radio desperately needed in the bleak, self-absorbed aftermath of grunge." [26] In 2005, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reflected that "Fly" was "fun, reggae-tinged pop" and added that it "contrasted with the metal feel of the rest of the album." [72] The A.V. Club wrote negatively of the album on its 20th anniversary in 2017. They noted that it was released in the same two week stretch between late June and early July 1997 that also featured albums by artists such as Limp Bizkit and Smash Mouth, and argued that this was the worst two week stretch in music history. [33] In 2015, Kate Beaudoin of Mic.com wrote that 1997 was "the definitive year [for] '90s guilty pleasures", and cited "Fly" as an example in her article, alongside songs such as "Barbie Girl" by Aqua, "MMMBop" by Hanson and "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks. [73]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Sugar Ray, except where noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."RPM" 3:21
2."Breathe" 3:24
3."Anyone" 3:29
4."Fly" (feat. Super Cat)
4:52
5."Speed Home California" 2:42
6."High Anxiety"
3:31
7."Tap, Twist, Snap" 3:12
8."American Pig" 4:01
9."Stand and Deliver"
2:58
10."Cash" 1:35
11."Invisible"
  • Sugar Ray
  • Kahne
3:09
12."Right Direction"
  • Sugar Ray
  • Kahne
2:53
13."Fly"
  • Sugar Ray
4:04
Total length:43:05

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [79] Platinum100,000^
United States (RIAA) [80] 2× Platinum2,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

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Mark Sayers McGrath is an American singer who is the lead vocalist of the rock band Sugar Ray. McGrath is also known for his work as a co-host of Extra, and he was the host of Don't Forget the Lyrics! in 2010. McGrath hosted the second season of the TV show Killer Karaoke, taking the place of Jackass star Steve-O.

<i>Fush Yu Mang</i> 1997 Smash Mouth album

Fush Yu Mang is the debut studio album by American rock band Smash Mouth, released on July 8, 1997 by Interscope Records. It includes their first major hit, "Walkin' on the Sun". The title of the album was taken from a line slurred by Al Pacino in Scarface. The cover of the album features the band flying through space in guitarist Greg Camp's 1962 Ford Falcon Squire wagon, with a band member's outstretched arm giving the finger. The title is written in a stylized, pseudo-Asian font. The album also features a cover version of War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?". The initial release was given a Parental Advisory label, while later releases were not. Fush Yu Mang has been certified double-platinum by the RIAA in the U.S. for sales in excess of 2 million.

<i>The Best of Sugar Ray</i> 2005 greatest hits album by Sugar Ray

The Best of Sugar Ray is a 2005 Sugar Ray greatest hits album, released by Atlantic Records, consisting of 12 previous hits and 3 new recordings. Tracks 1, 9, and 14 are new tracks. Tracks 7 and 10 are from Lemonade and Brownies, Tracks 3 and 12 are from Floored, Tracks 4, 6 and 8 are from 14:59, Tracks 2, 5, and 11 are from Sugar Ray, and Tracks 13 and 15 are from In the Pursuit of Leisure. The 3 new songs are: "Shot of Laughter", a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", and a song written by a teenage Howard Stern, "Psychedelic Bee". "Mr. Bartender" is the only hit single absent from the album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fly (Sugar Ray song)</span> 1997 single by Sugar Ray

"Fly" is a song by American rock band Sugar Ray. It appears on their 1997 album Floored twice: one version with reggae artist Super Cat and the other without. The song was serviced to US radio in May 1997.

<i>Sugar Ray</i> (album) 2001 studio album by Sugar Ray

Sugar Ray is the fourth studio album by the band Sugar Ray. The album was released on June 12, 2001, and debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200 chart, and went gold. The album's first single, "When It's Over", also performed well on pop and rock charts.

<i>In the Pursuit of Leisure</i> 2003 studio album by Sugar Ray

In the Pursuit of Leisure is the fifth studio album by American rock band Sugar Ray, released in 2003. Singer-songwriter Esthero and reggae singer Shaggy both make guest appearances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">When It's Over (Sugar Ray song)</span> 2001 single by Sugar Ray

"When It's Over" is a song by American rock band Sugar Ray. It was released to all radio formats on May 7, 2001, as the lead single from their self-titled fourth album (2001). The song reached number six in New Zealand, number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart.

<i>Music for Cougars</i> 2009 studio album by Sugar Ray

Music for Cougars is Sugar Ray's sixth studio album, released in 2009. This was the last album to feature turntablist Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock, bassist Murphy Karges and drummer Stan Frazier before their departures in August 2010 and early 2012, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ Homicide</span> Musical artist

Craig Anthony Bullock, also known by his stage name DJ Homicide, is an American musician, DJ, rapper, singer, record producer and radio personality. He was the DJ of the rock band Sugar Ray.

"Answer the Phone" is a song by the American rock band Sugar Ray. It was released on September 24, 2001, via Atlantic Records and Lava Records as the second single from their self-titled fourth studio album. It is a pop punk song that was written by Mark McGrath, Stan Frazier, Murphy Karges, and Don Gilmore and produced by the latter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman</span> 1978 single by The Kinks

"(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" is a song written by Ray Davies that was first released on the Kinks' 1979 album, Low Budget. The song, inspired by Superman: The Movie, employs a disco beat and lyrics that describe the singer's wish to be like the fictional character Superman. The song's disco style was created as a response to Arista Records founder Clive Davis's request for "a club-friendly record", despite Ray Davies' hatred of disco.

<i>Little Yachty</i> (album) 2019 studio album by Sugar Ray

Little Yachty is the seventh studio album by American musical group Sugar Ray, released in 2019 through BMG. Singer Mark McGrath and guitarist Rodney Sheppard are the only members of the band to have appeared on their previous album, 2009's Music for Cougars.

References

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