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