Sugar Ray is a rock band from Orange County, California. The band formed in 1992 with the name Shrinky Dinx, later changing it to Sugar Ray after the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. They originally were a funk metal band, however later releases abandoned this genre in favour of pop rock. Their debut album, Lemonade and Brownies, was released in 1995. ...show more

Sugar Ray is a rock band from Orange County, California. The band formed in 1992 with the name Shrinky Dinx, later changing it to Sugar Ray after the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. They originally were a funk metal band, however later releases abandoned this genre in favour of pop rock. Their debut album, Lemonade and Brownies, was released in 1995.

It failed to produce a major hit. Their early work was strongly influenced by funk, punk, alternative rock and straight-up rhythm and blues, not a particularly fashionable combination at the time. Sugar Ray's first mainstream hit came in the summer of 1997 with their song "Fly", which was released on the album Floored and featured notable reggae artist Super Cat. "Fly" was notable for not sounding anything at all like the rest of the tracks on the album and received frequent (some called it "constant") radio play.

As a result of the success of "Fly", Floored sold extremely well and was certified double platinum. By the end of 1997, critics, skeptical that the band could put out another successful song, had labeled Sugar Ray as a one-hit wonder. The band's sardonic reply to these accusations was given in the form of their 1999 album, 14:59; the album's title, with a "fame clock" reading 14:59, implied that their fifteen minutes of fame were not quite up. The song "Every Morning", which received widespread comparisons to "Fly", rose to similar success in late 1998, while their follow-up single, "Someday", received extensive airplay during 1999. ...show less