Song:Every Morning
Album:The Best Of Sugar Ray
Though they started out as a funk metal band, Sugar Ray used a mix of pop and hip hop techniques to have a lot of success in the 90s with songs like Every Morning. Sugar Ray are from Newport Beach, CA and were called Shrinky Dinx when they were formed in 1988 by guitarist Rodney Sheppard, drummer Stan Frazier and bassist Murphy Karges. Sheppard and Frazier were in the band The Tories. Lead singer Mark McGrath joined soon after. They signed with Atlantic Records but were forced to change the band name after the toy company Milton Bradley threatened to sue over the Shrinky Dinx name. So they named themselves after boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. Their 1995 debut CD Lemonade and Brownies was acclaimed for it's mix of funk and metal. But Atlantic was disappointed with the album sales and they wanted Sugar Ray to be a more mainstream pop band. They recorded the 1997 CD Floored with veteran producer David Kahne. Sugar Ray got lucky when Fly became a big hit though it wasn't released as a single. Many in the music industry thought it was a fluke. But Sugar Ray proved them wrong when the 1999 CD 14:59 was certified 3XPlatinum and the single Every Morning reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The success of Fly encouraged Sugar Ray to go in a more mainstream pop direction but they still used hip hop elements. Every Morning featured rapper MC Rebel and sampled the 70s Malo hit Suavecito and the 1968 Hugh Masekela classic Grazing In The Grass. Sugar Ray's next single Someday was also a top ten hit. This was the band's high point as subsequent albums didn't do as well and Sugar Ray left Atlantic in 2003. You can get all their hits on this comp. Sugar Ray was inactive while Mark McGrath was an anchor for the syndicated entertainment show Extra. Sugar Ray reformed and released the 2009 CD Music For Cougars. They toured but Frazier and Karges left in 2012. McGrath attempted to continue but legal issues forced the end of Sugar Ray and McGrath announced that he will release a solo album in 2015. Here's the video for Every Morning by Sugar Ray.
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