Good Charlotte
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| Good Charlotte | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information
<tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Waldorf, Charles County, Maryland, United States</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Pop Punk, Pop rock</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1996–present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Epic Records/Daylight Records</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td colspan="2">http://www.goodcharlotte.com/</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Joel Madden |
Good Charlotte is a pop punk band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. They took their name from a children's book: Good Charlotte: The Girls Of Good Day Orphanage by Carol Beach York. They have released 3 albums, most notably 2002's multiplatinum seller The Young and the Hopeless, which spawned the chart topping singles, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," "The Anthem," and "Girls and Boys." Their next album, titled "Good Morning Revival!" will be released in February 2007. The band is fronted by identical twin brothers Benji and Joel Madden. Other members of the band include their friends Billy Martin and Paul Thomas.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Getting Noticed
In 1999 Good Charlotte garnered popularity by playing clubs and small venues. They caught the attention of rock band Lit (whose song "My Own Worst Enemy" was a chart topper at the time). Good Charlotte filled the opening slot on Lit's east coast tour in 1999. Soon after, Good Charlotte played some dates with blink-182, who had just experienced mainstream success with their Enema of The State album.
Good Charlotte's demo started to get passed around and eventually ended up in the hands of (now defunct) Philadelphia modern rock station Y100 who spun Good Charlotte's song "Little Things." It ended up being a big success on the station, so big in fact that on Y100's nightly "Cage Match" competition (where new songs where pitted against each other and listeners could vote on which was better), "Little Things" won fifteen nights in a row, beating out bigger names. All of this caught the attention of major music labels. Good Charlotte signed with Epic Records in 1999.
[edit] Mainstream Success - The Young and the Hopeless
2002's The Young and the Hopeless marked the band's emergence into mainstream popularity. Their breakthrough single, titled "Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous", topped both pop and rock charts around the globe. Singles that followed from that album include "The Anthem" ,"Girls and Boys", "Hold On" and "The Young and The Hopeless".
The album eventually went on to receive a 3x-platinum certification from the RIAA. During the course of the album's success, Good Charlotte landed appearances on Saturday Night Live, CNN, and The Today Show, the covers of Rolling Stone and Alternative Press magazines, and were also featured in the New York Times. They also became popular on MTV, where their music videos were played in heavy rotation on both MTV and MTV2. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" received the "Viewers Choice Award" at MTV's 2003 Video Music Awards.
In 2003 the band added Chris Wilson, who was introduced to the band from mutual friends in the band The Used, as a permanent drummer.
[edit] The Chronicles of Life and Death
Good Charlotte's third album, The Chronicles of Life and Death, was released in 2004. The album received mixed reactions from both the music press and Good Charlotte's fanbase. The album has been widely considered a departure from their previous two albums, mixing new elements such as strings, synths, and more mature lyrical topics into Good Charlotte's youthful power-pop sound. Singles released from the album include the 2 hits "Predictable" and "I Just Wanna Live", as well as "We Believe" and "The Chronicles of Life and Death".
In May 2005, after much speculation from fans, it was officially confirmed that Chris Wilson had left the band citing personal health reasons. Benji also told Kerrang! magazine that, for him, Chris leaving the band was the worst part of 2005. Chris now plays drums in the pop-rock band The Summer Obsession.
For Good Charlotte's tour, "Noise to the World Tour" with Simple Plan and Relient K, the band recruited Dean Butterworth, previously of Morrissey, as the band's temporary drummer. In August 2005, Butterworth was confirmed as the band's permanent drummer.
Benji Madden has recently claimed in interviews that he feels this record was not as successful as the previous record due to it being "too selfish".
[edit] Good Morning Revival!
In the fall of 2006, it was announced that Good Charlotte's fourth studio album will be titled Good Morning Revival![1], and the first song released is called Keep Your Hands Off My Girl[2], which the band describes as "just a fun song". The album was produced by Don Gilmore, who also produced the band's first record. The album was also recorded in the same studio as the band's first record. Other track titles that have been revealed are: Misery, Dance Floor Anthem, She Takes Your Money (featuring rapper Fabolous), and Victims of Love. Joel Madden recently said in an interview that one song called The River will feature collaborations with metal band Avenged Sevenfold. On 22 September 2006, the song Keep Your Hands Off My Girl was posted on Good Charlotte's website and MySpace page. On October 19, 2006 the band posted the remix for "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" in which Junior Sanchez collaborates, on their website. They also have an episode of their new webshow GCTV which features their song "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl."
On October 26th 2006 the band uploaded the video of their new song 'Keep Your Hands Off My Girl' on their myspace page. The band commented on the video, "We shot this a few weeks ago and it was directed by our friend Marvin Scott Jarrett, who also directed our not yet released DVD, Fast Future Generation. This video is just something we did for our fans and we are hoping you all enjoy it! Thanks to everyone who came out to the tour, we still can't believe how awesome it was to put together a tour so last minute, and still have all of you come. Thank you. And you all knew the words to KYHOMG! Awesome."
Recently it was reported Good Charlotte will be featured on a track on Lil Jon's upcoming album "Crunk Rock".
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Album Cover | Date of Release | Title | Label | US Album Chart Position | US sales | UK Album Chart Position (Billboard Top 200) | UK sales |
 | September 26th 2000 | Good Charlotte | Epic Records / Daylight Records | 185 | Gold | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | October 1st 2002 | The Young and the Hopeless | Epic Records / Daylight Records | 7 | 3 x Platinum | 15 | - |
| October 5th 2004 | The Chronicles of Life and Death | Epic Records / Daylight Records | 3 | Platinum | 8 | ||
| Early 2007 | Good Morning Revival! | Epic Records / Daylight Records |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Hot 100 | U.S. Modern Rock | UK Singles Chart | |||
| 2001 | Little Things | - | 23 | - | Good Charlotte |
| 2001 | Motivation Proclamation | - | - | - | Good Charlotte |
| 2001 | Festival Song | - | - | - | Good Charlotte |
| 2003 | Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous | 20 | 11 | 8 | The Young and the Hopeless |
| 2003 | Girls and Boys | 18 | - | 6 | The Young and the Hopeless |
| 2003 | The Anthem | 43 | 10 | 10 | The Young and the Hopeless |
| 2003 | The Young and the Hopeless | - | 28 | 34 | The Young and the Hopeless |
| 2003 | Hold On | 63 | - | 34 | The Young and the Hopeless |
| 2004 | Predictable | - | 28 | 12 | The Chronicles of Life and Death |
| 2005 | I Just Wanna Live | 51 | - | 9 | The Chronicles of Life and Death |
| 2005 | The Chronicles of Life and Death | - | - | 30 | The Chronicles of Life and Death |
| 2005 | We Believe | - | - | - | The Chronicles of Life and Death |
[edit] Band members
- Joel Madden - Vocals
- Benji Madden - Lead Guitar, vocals
- Billy Martin - Guitar and Keyboards
- Paul Thomas - bass
- Dean Butterworth - Drums
[edit] Former members
- Aaron Escolopio (1996-2001) - Drums
- Chris Wilson (2002-2005) - Drums
[edit] Temporary members
- Dusty Brill - Played as a drummer with the band after Aaron Escolopio left the band.
- Cyrus Bolooki - Played as a drummer at some dates with Good Charlotte on tour.
- Josh Freese - Recorded the "The Young and the Hopeless" album as a drummer.
- Robin Eckman - Played as a drummer on "The Chronicles of Life and Death" Australia, Europe, Asia tour.
[edit] Trivia
- The theme song from Mtv's Undergrads The Click, is written and performed by Good Charlotte who also appear in the Risk episode.
- The song The Click from their first album Good Charlotte was never released as a single, but a video was made as a mix of a Good Charlotte's Live concert and scences from Mtv's Undergrads. This can be found in the DVD Good Charlotte Video Collection
- Billy Martin has a website for all of his art called "Bloodzilla"[3]
- Paul Thomas is the somewhat quieter member of the band, but that doesn't stop him from having a strong following of fans. One of the fans' favourite Paul quote is 'no one has a crush on the bass player', which has inspired many t-shirt designs since.
- Joel Madden dated Hilary Duff for 2 ½ years, but their relationship ended in mid-November 2006, reportedly due to the age difference (he's 27, she's 19); he is currently single.
- Benji and Joel's father left the family on Christmas Eve when they were 15.
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- Good Charlotte on Epic Records
- Official Good Charlotte Myspace
- Good Charlotte Israel
- Interview: Joel Madden
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