Similar to fellow British pop act Busted, London-based McFly came together and quickly won over the youth masses with their boyish charm and lively tales of adolescence. However, while Busted shared commonalities with the punk-edged accessibility of acts like blink-182 and Simple Plan, McFly owed a bit more musically to bands like the Beach Boys. Naming themselves after Michael J. Fox's character from the Back to the Future series, the guys -- Danny Jones (guitar/vocals), Tom Fletcher (guitar/vocals), Dougie Poynter (bass/vocals), and Harry Judd (drums) -- released Room on the Third Floor in the fall of 2004 on Universal. The album went straight to number one in the U.K., an achievement that landed them in The Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest band to ever do so. It produced a slew of Top Five hits as well, including "Five Colours in Her Hair," "Obviously," "That Girl," and "Room on the Third Floor," the first two of which peaked at number one on the U.K. charts.
McFly started off 2005 with a Best Pop Award win at the Brits, and later in the year released the charity single "All About You," which also contained a B-side cover of Carole King's "You've Got a Friend." The proceeds from the single benefited African communities affected by HIV/AIDS, and as a result, the band spent some time early in the year visiting with some of these villages in Uganda. McFly issued their follow-up record, Wonderland, in the U.K. in August 2005; filmed during a show in Manchester, the subsequent Wonderland Tour 2005 DVD appeared that fall. The bandmembers next surfaced with roles as themselves in the spring 2006 Lindsay Lohan teen movie Just My Luck. A record of the same name, though not the movie's soundtrack, was released that May in the United States, which contained tracks from their other albums. The full-length Motion in the Ocean followed that fall. One of its singles, "Please, Please," caused an initial stir among gossip columns and bloggers as it was apparently written by members of McFly (everyone but Judd, that is) about Judd's alleged romantic relationship with Lindsay Lohan on the film's set. ~ Corey Apar, All Music Guide
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