Sugar Ray is one of those bands that ended up defining a very specific late-’90s and early-2000s Southern California pop sound, even though that’s not how they started. They came up rougher, louder, and more rooted in punk, metal, funk, and hip-hop before leaning into the breezier side of their style and turning songs like “Fly,” “Every Morning,” and “Someday” into huge crossover hits.
The band started in Newport Beach and originally played under the name Shrinky Dinx before changing it to Sugar Ray. Their early years were built around a rowdier alt-rock sound, but everything shifted when “Fly” unexpectedly blew up in 1997 and opened the door to a more melodic, radio-friendly direction. That move paid off in a big way with 14:59, which turned them into pop-culture fixtures and gave them a longer run than anyone expected, even as Mark McGrath’s celebrity profile started to grow beyond the band itself.
