Catching fire in the late ’90s, Southern California rockers Sugar Ray were responsible for some of the decade’s most memorable pop hits.
∙ Formed in 1992 when singer Mark McGrath joined the group—which was then called Shrinky Dinx—Sugar Ray began as a punk and nu-metal band.
∙ “Fly,” a pop outlier from their 1997 album, Floored, was a surprise smash, spending eight weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart.
∙ Winking at critics who saw the band as a one-hit wonder whose proverbial 15 minutes of fame were up, Sugar Ray titled their next album 14:59—and it went triple Platinum.
∙ “Every Morning,” the lead single from 14:59, shot to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was closely followed by “Someday,” another Top 10 hit.
∙ After appearing with the band in numerous films and TV shows during the early 2000s, McGrath was tapped to cohost the entertainment news program Extra in 2004.
∙ In 2012, McGrath teamed up with Art Alexakis of Everclear to launch Summerland, a touring showcase of ’90s rock acts, and started his own similar tour, Under the Sun, the following year.