 Upon the release of their debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You, in the
fall of 1996,
Matchbox Twenty were pigeonholed as one of the legions of post-grunge guitar
bands that roamed the American pop scene in the middle of the '90s. As their
first single, "Push," climbed the charts, it was widely assumed (at least by cynical critics) that they were a one-hit wonder, but Yourself or Someone Like
You continued to spin off singles well into 1998. By that time, the group's
blend of '70s arena rock and early-'90s American alt-rock -- closer to
Pearl Jam and maybe
R.E.M. than
Nirvana -- had become the sound of mainstream American rock. That transition
slipped underneath the radar of many pop music critics and fans. Yourself or
Someone Like You sold millions of copies without ever truly dominating the
charts -- by 1998, it had gone platinum five times; by 2000, ten times. At no
time did the record top the charts, but it was always around, a staple of modern
rock, adult alternative, and Top 40 radio alike.
Matchbox Twenty were omnipresent because they managed to blend the structure
and sentiment of '70s arena rock with '90s hard rock, thereby winning a large
audience by seeming simultaneously classicist and modern. They were a little
more classicist than modern, but that's the reason why they became America's
most popular rock band of the late '90s -- even if nobody quite realized that
they had achieved that status.
The de facto leader of
Matchbox Twenty is lead singer and songwriter
Rob Thomas. An Army brat that was born on a military base in Germany,
Thomas spent much of his childhood between his mother's house in Florida and
his grandmother's place in South Carolina. The stress of the constant movement
spilled over into his schoolwork and he dropped out of high school at the age of
17. He spent some time wandering around the Southeast, singing in a variety of
rock bands before he made Orlando, FL, his home base. There, he met bassist
Brian Yale and drummer
Paul Doucette, and the three spent several years drifting through local
bands before
Matchbox Twenty officially formed. They rounded out the lineup with Adam
Gaynor (rhythm guitar, vocals), who had previously worked at the Criteria
Recording Studios in Miami, and
Kyle Cook (lead guitar), a former student of the Atlanta Institute of Music.
The band hooked up with
Collective Soul producer
Matt Serletic and recorded a batch of demos, which helped the band secure
gigs throughout the U.S. Soon, the band signed to Lava, a subsidiary of Atlantic
Records, and recorded its debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, also with
Serletic. The album was released in October of 1996 to little attention, but
Matchbox Twenty continued to tour America, cultivating a fan base. They
eventually landed their single "Long Day" on several influential radio stations,
which paved the way for their breakthrough hit, "Push." In the spring of 1997,
"Push" began climbing its way to the top of the modern rock charts, as it
received heavy airplay from radio and MTV. By the summer, the single was in the
modern rock Top Ten, and Yourself or Someone Like You had reached the album Top
40 and gone gold.
As it turns out, "Push" wasn't the culmination of their work but the
beginning of a somewhat surprising success story. During the fall of 1997, the
record picked up momentum, as "3am" became a bigger hit than "Push," propelling
Yourself or Someone Like You to multi-platinum status. Early in 1998, the group
was named Best New Band by Rolling Stone's annual reader's poll -- proof that,
even if
Matchbox Twenty weren't winning critics, they were winning over a wide,
mainstream audience. The band and its debut album continued to sell at a steady
pace throughout the year as the singles "Real World" and "Back 2 Good" joined
"Push" and "3am" as radio favorites. Throughout it all,
Matchbox Twenty stayed on the road, at home and abroad. They did well in
foreign territories, including Canada, but they truly connected with Australia,
where they went platinum eight times; in neighboring New Zealand, the band went
quintuple platinum.
Matchbox Twenty reserved 1999 as the year to record their eagerly
anticipated second album, but they didn't disappear from the spotlight, due to
the unexpected success of "Smooth," a
Santana song co-written and sung by
Rob Thomas. "Smooth" was one of many songs sung by celebrities on
Santana's cameo-studded comeback album Supernatural, but it was the one
chosen as the lead single. A wise choice, as it turned out, since it became a
true pop phenomenon, topping many radio charts and driving Supernatural to
multi-platinum sales and many industry awards. Throughout the second half of
1999, "Smooth" was inescapable, as it and Supernatural sat on the top of the pop
charts. Its success brought more attention to
Matchbox Twenty, and Yourself or Someone Like You rocketed to over ten
million copies sold -- which now qualified it for the RIAA's Diamond Award,
which is only granted to records that have moved over ten million units. On top
of that,
Thomas was named BMI's 1999 Pop Songwriter of the Year, for "Smooth" and his
work with
Matchbox Twenty. Early in 2000,
Thomas won three Grammys for "Smooth" -- Song of the Year, Record of the
Year, and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.
All of this success happened as
Matchbox Twenty were recording their second album, again with producer
Matt Serletic. The success raised expectations for the new album, entitled
Mad Season, which was released in May 2000. Two years later, the band emerged
with its third album, More Than You Think You Are. With this particular record,
the band shared songwriting duties as a whole for the first time ever. ~ Stephen
Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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