About
Smash Mouth (named after Mike Ditka's term "smash mouth football") was formed in San Jose, Calif., in 1994 when boyhood friends and former band compadres Steve Harwell (vocals) and Kevin Coleman (drums) recruited Greg Camp (guitar) from a local cover band. Camp then persuaded Paul De Lisle (bass), with whom he'd played in another outfit, to take a chance on the new band.
After toiling for a couple of years on the San Jose scene, Smash Mouth caught fire when area radio station KOME started spinning what would be their breakthrough: "Nervous In The Alley" (Smash Mouth were the first unsigned band to receive regular rotation on the influential Modem Rock outlet). Soon thereafter, the quartet inked a deal with Interscope Records, which released their debut, Fush Yu Mang, in 1997.
Smash Mouth supported the album with extensive touring, including jaunts with Sugar Ray, Third Eye Blind and Blur, among others. Buoyed by these road efforts, the #1 radio success of "Walkin' On The Sun" and a cover of War's "Why Can't We Be Friends" (not to mention a couple of heavily rotated videos), Fush Yu... bum-rushed the Top 20 and racked up double platinum sales.
The band built on their success with a rendition of? and the Mysterians' "Can't Get Enough of You Baby," which made its debut on the soundtrack to "Can't Hardly Wait." The cut is also included on Smash Mouth's latest opus, Astro Lounge.
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