Bowling for Soup is an American Grammy nominated, comedy influenced pop punk band who originally formed in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1994. Now based in Denton, Texas, the band is best known for their singles "Girl All the Bad Guys Want" (a 2003 Grammy Award nominee) and "1985," both of which were penned by other artists. "Girl All the Bad Guys Want" was written by artist and record producer Butch Walker and "1985" was written by SR-71 front man Mitch Allan. They have sold over one million copies of their studio albums, including a compilation of their covers and movie/TV soundtrack songs.

History

Bowling for Soup was formed in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1994 by Jaret Reddick (vocals, guitar), Erik Chandler (bass, vocals), Chris Burney (guitar, vocals) and Lance Morril (drums, vocals). Morril left the band in 1998 (on good terms) and was replaced by Gary Wiseman of Gary and the Wisemen. The band's name is derived from comedian Steve Martin's "Bowling for Shit" routine from his 1978 comedy album, Wild and Crazy Guy, itself a reference to Bowling for Dollars. In 1998, the band relocated to Denton, Texas and recorded their first studio album Rock on Honorable Ones!! (a reference to S.H. Rider's motto "ROHO"--Ride On Honorable Ones) in 1998 for Denton music label FFROE. Bowling for Soup released their second studio album, Tell Me When To Whoa!!!, through FFROE later that year. The album sold over 10,000 copies, prompting Jive Records to sign the band. Let's Do It for Johnny! , Bowling for Soup's major label debut, was released on Jive in 2000. The album mostly contained re-recordings of their previous material, but it also contained a few new tracks and a cover of Bryan Adams' song "Summer of '69."

2002: Drunk Enough to Dance

In 2002, the band recorded their second major label album, Drunk Enough to Dance. The lead single from the album, "Girl All the Bad Guys Want", became a top 10 hit in the UK and a top 100 hit in the US. The next year, the single was nominated for the Grammy Award for "Best Pop Performance by a Group or Duo". The success of the single helped Drunk Enough to Dance reach #2 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers album chart, with a peak of #129 on the Billboard 200. The follow up single, "Emily" did not fare so well, climbing to a disappointing #67 in the UK Singles chart and not even charting in the US. Bowling For Soup's record label felt that a third single should be released, because of the success of "Girl All the Bad Guys Want" but did not feel any of the remaining songs on Drunk Enough to Dance were single material. So the band recorded a new song, "Punk Rock 101" to release as the third single. The song was included on a re-issue of the album Drunk Enough to Dance. The single was more successful than "Emily", climbing to #43 in the UK Singles Chart. In support of their album, Bowling For Soup embarked on a UK tour, being supported by such UK bands as [spunge].

2004: A Hangover You Don't Deserve

A Hangover You Don't Deserve followed two years later, and has become the band's only top 40 album. Sales of the album were driven in large part by the radio airplay of the single "1985", a song written by the band SR-71. Mitch Allan, lead singer of SR-71, contributed background vocals to the song and also appeared in the music video. "1985" became Bowling for Soup's biggest hit in the US, reaching #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. A second single from A Hangover You Don't Deserve, titled "Almost", charted at #100 on the UK Singles Chart, #46 on the US Top 100, and #23 on US Pop 100. "Ohio", better known as "Come Back to Texas", was also released as a radio single in the US, but was not as popular as "1985" or "Almost", reaching only #59 on the US Pop 100.

Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies, a compilation album of cover songs and contributions to movie soundtracks, was released by the band in 2005. Later that year, Jaret Reddick and Chris Burney made several appearances on VH1's "I Love the '90s: Part Deux".

2006: The Great Burrito Extortion Case

Following the release of their covers album, Bowling for Soup spent most of 2006 readying their seventh studio album, entitled The Great Burrito Extortion Case, which was released on November 7, 2006. They released the first single off that album, "High School Never Ends", to iTunes on September 19, 2006. The UK release of the album was February 5th 2007. [1].[Grammy's]

The Get Happy Tours

Bowling For Soup toured the USA over the summer and autumn of 2006 with the Get Happy tour. This was followed by a UK tour in early February 2007. Coinciding with this UK tour was the UK release of Highschool Never Ends. The tour included Bowling For Soup as main headliners, Wheatus, Son of Dork and Army of Freshmen on the 12 date trek, which concluded at Hammersmith Pallais in London, on the 18th February.

Bowling For Soup confirmed during the Get Happy Tour that they will be performing another tour of the UK in October 2007, called the Get Happy Tour 2, also gracing the USA over the summer and featuring support Acts Melee, Quietdrive, and Army of Freshmen. The UK tour bands were confirmed at the Download Festival (Army Of Freshmen who played in the morning announced it first, and Bowling For Soup announced it later that afternoon), along with the lineup in Kerrang! on an advertisement poster for the new tour. The line up consists of Bowling For Soup, Bloodhound Gang, Zebrahead and Army of Freshmen. The dates can also be found on the Get Happy Tour myspace page[2].

Members

Current members

• Jaret Reddick - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1994-present)
• Erik Chandler - bass, backing vocals (1994-present)
• Chris Burney - lead guitar, backing vocals (1994-present)
• Gary Wiseman - drums (1998-present)

Former members

• Lance Morril - drums, backing vocals (1994-1998)

Discography

Albums

• 1994: Bowling for Soup
• 1996: Cell Mates
• 1998: Rock on Honorable Ones!!
• 1999: Tell Me When to Whoa!
• 2000: Let's Do It for Johnny! – UK #186
• 2002: Drunk Enough to Dance – US #129, UK #14
• 2004: A Hangover You Don't Deserve – US #37, UK #64 – RIAA: Gold
• 2005: Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies
• 2006: The Great Burrito Extortion Case – US #88 UK #43

Singles

Other appearances

• "Guard My Heart" (from the HBO movie Sardines)
• "Why I Love Yellowcard" - Tim Wheeler EP
• "5 O'Clock World" (as heard on the The Drew Carey Show)
• "...Baby One More Time" (from the major motion picture Freaky Friday)
• "Here We Go" (from the Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Soundtrack)
• "Bare Necessities" (from the DisneyMania 3 CD)
• "Lil' Red Riding Hood" (from the Cursed Soundtrack)
• "Undertow" (from the Summerland Soundtrack)
• A child friendly version of "I Melt with You" (from the Sky High Soundtrack)
• "Punk Rock 101" (from the videogame NHL 2004)
• "Suckerpunch" (heard and briefly seen in the 2002 film Crossroads)
• "Ghostbusters" (from the Just Like Heaven soundtrack)
• "Punk Rock 101" and "I Ran" (from the video game Backyard Wrestling)
• "The Last Rock Show" (as heard in the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Family Reunion" 2002)
• "The Girl All The Bad Guys Want" (as heard in the movie The New Guy)
• "Almost" (as heard in the movie Dirty Deeds)
• "Gilligan's Island Theme" (as heard on The Real Gilligan's Island)
• "Greatest Day" (as heard on Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star also in the Nickelodeon original movie "Last Day of Summer" and Max Keeble's big move)
• "I Ran" (a cover of the Flock Of Seagulls single was featured as the Knights of the Zodiac intro theme; also included as an extra track on Drunk Enough to Dance)
• A mock music video of "London Bridge" by Fergie was performed exclusively for Yahoo! Music by Bowling for Soup. [3]
• Theme song of "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius"
• 1985 (Features on the video game SingStar Rocks!)

Trivia

• Bowling for Soup never prepares a set list. In 2007, Jaret said they decide what to play as the show progresses. "It's been that way for 13 years," meaning that they've done it for as long as they've been a band.
• During slow periods on tour, the band passes time by playing washers.
• The band now often play a cover of The Ramones song "I Wanna Be Sedated" replacing the word 'Sedated' with 'Naked', Similar to the Screeching Weasel song "I Wanna Be Naked". They have played this at the first UK Get Happy tour and Download Festival in the UK.
• It has become a running gag in Bowling for Soup's music videos to feature previous songs of their's as an intro for the video. This can be Seen in "Girl all the Bad Guys Want," "Emily," and "High School Never Ends," which each feature music for "The Bitch Song," "Girl all the Bad Guys Want," and "1985" respectively.
• New Zealand band 48May ran into legal issues and had to take their song "Leather and Tattoos" off their debut album. The album was taken off of shelves and replaced with a "Tour edition" of the cd with the questionable song missing. The melody was exactly the same as Punk Rock 101 by Bowling for soup.
• The Song "I'm Gay" From The Album The Great Burrito Extortion Case was Written by Chris Burney.
• Bowling For Soup is good friends with the band SR-71. In fact, Bowling For Soup's hit song "1985" was originally written by SR-71's Mitch Allan. According to Jaret, Mitch showed the song to him and instructed him to take it as his own, as it seemed more of a BFS song than an SR-71 song.
• Bowling For Soup are also good friends with Army Of Freshmen. In the video for '1985' the boy clapping can be seen wearing an AOF t-shirt. Jaret also does guest vocals on some tracks on AOF's album 'Under The Radar'. AOF is also featured as part of the BHS Marching Band in the "High School Never Ends" music video.
• Chris has a front tooth that was knocked out and at a Playland concert (Rye, NY) August 9th, 2007 the band decided to call the prosthetic tooth in its place, "Byron." Other choices included "Bartholomew" and "Stevie"
• The band has also been known to play a pop punk version of Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire' as an encore to their show

External links

• Official web site
• Worst Decision - Organisers of Street Teams and Newsletters for Bowling For Soup and more
• Official Bowling For Soup Street Team on Fancorps.com
• Mag.Rock.Com interview with BFS 2007
• Up-Load UK Interview 2006
• Interview at OneMetal