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Good Charlotte
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Origin	Maryland, United States
Country	{{{country}}}
Years active	1996–present
Genre(s)	pop-rock pop-punk
Label(s)	Epic Records
Members	Joel Madden Benji Madden Billy Martin Paul Thomas
Past members	{{{past_members}}}

Good Charlotte is a pop-rock (labeled as pop-punk) band from Maryland that formed in 1996. They took the name 'Good Charlotte' from a children's book: Good Charlotte: The Girls Of Good Day Orphanage by Carol Beach York. They have released three albums, most notably 2002's multiplatinum seller The Young and the Hopeless, which spawned the chart topping singles, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," "The Anthem," and "Girls and Boys." The band's third and most recent album is 2004's The Chronicles of Life and Death. The band is fronted by twin brothers Benji and Joel Madden, born in Waldorf, Maryland. Other members of the band include their friends Billy Martin and Paul Thomas.

Contents 1 Band members 1.1 Former Members 1.2 Temporary 2 Biography 3 Style 4 Various Facts/Trivia 5 Discography 5.1 Albums 5.2 EPs 5.3 Singles 6 External links

Band members

• Joel Madden: Vocals and occasional 3rd Guitar
• Benji Madden: Lead guitar and backup vocals
• Billy Martin: Rhythm Guitar and Keyboards
• Paul Thomas: Bass

Former Members

• Aaron Escolopio - Drums
• Chris Wilson - Drums

Temporary

• Dean Butterworth - Drums ('Noise To The World' tour w/ Simple Plan)
• Josh Freese - Drums (The Young and the Hopeless album)
• New Found Glory - Drums (Vans Warped Tour 2001)
• Dusty Brill - Drums (Vans Warped Tour 2001)

Biography

Good Charlotte's frontmen, identical twins Joel and Benji Madden, were born on March 11, 1979 to a middle class family in Waldorf, Maryland. Their mother raised them with a strict Christian up-bringing. Their father left the family when the twins were 16 years old, causing financial problems for the twins, their mother, older brother, and younger sister. For a short period of time the twins had to work as shampoo boys in a salon. Benji and Joel cite their older brother Josh Madden for introducing them to rock music by bands such as Rancid and Social Distortion. After attending a Beastie Boys concert at the age of 16, Benji and Joel decided to start their very own band, although Joel had never sung before, and Benji had never played guitar. The first band they started was called "The Benji, Joel, and Brian Band,' which they started with a friend. The band was short lived. They then started Good Charlotte in 1996 when they recruited childhood friends Paul Thomas (bass) and Aaron Escolopio (drums). They soon moved to Annapolis, Maryland where they were introduced to Billy Martin by a friend

After releasing an EP, entitled Another EP, in 1999, Good Charlotte released their first self-titled album in 2000, which was not a huge commercial success. Singles that were released from that album include "Little Things" and "Motivation Proclamation," and "Festival Song".

Aaron was the drummer in their debut album, Good Charlotte, before leaving the band in early 2001 to join the band Wakefield with his brother, Ryan. He was replaced with Dusty, who was just a temporary drummer, who had left the band before the recording of their second album, The Young & the Hopeless. As a result, veteran professional studio drummer Josh Freese plays for that album.

2002's The Young And The Hopeless was much more popular, and marked the bands emergence into mainstream music. The single that made them famous, titled "Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous", topped charts around the globe. Singles that followed from that album included "The Anthem" ,"Girls and Boys", "Hold On" and "The Young and The Hopeless". "The Young and the Hopeless" received a 3x-platinum certification from the RIAA, landing the band on Saturday Night Live, the covers of Rolling Stone and Alternative Press, a two page feature in the New York Times, and spots on CNN and The Today Show. Good Charlotte were also hugely popular on MTV, where the Madden Brothers once served as hosts on the late night music video show "All Things Rock." Their music videos were favorites on both MTV and MTV2, with "The Anthem" going on to receive the "Viewers Choice Award" on MTV's 2003 Video Music Awards.

Chris Wilson was the band's drummer for their third album, The Chronicles of Life and Death, which was released in 2004. The singles released from that album include "Predictable", "I Just Wanna Live", "We Believe" and "The Chronicles of Life and Death". This album was considered a departure from their previous 2 albums. In May 2005, Chris left the band for personal health reasons.[1]. Benji also told Kerrang! magazine that Chris leaving the band was the worst part of 2005 for him.

Today, through non-stop touring and wide publicity through the mainstream media, Good Charlotte has built a huge fanbase among young people around the world.

Their most recent "Noise to the World Tour" with Simple Plan featured Dean Butterworth, who has previously played with Morrissey, as the band's current temporary drummer.

Style

Good Charlotte's hair and clothing styles are mostly derived from a variety of punk bands from the 80s and 90s. Some of these bands include: Agnostic Front, MXPX, The Casualties, The Exploited, Rancid, Sex Pistols, Minor Threat, Social Distortion, NOFX, H2O, Anti-Flag, and Blink 182. Several of these bands are credited in Good Charlotte's early album notes.

The trademark looks of identical twins, Benji and Joel, are that they have their hair dyed in different colors and most often the color black. Now Joel is seen with smudgy, dark lined eyes. Currently, Benji's hair is jet black with the sides kinda shaven and some hair in his right eye but he mostly wears either a bandana or a hat netcap. His makeup includes having eyeliner tears down his face. On Billy, his hair has been dyed, cut, short, long. Billy wears make-up with his favourite colors pink and blue eyeshadows. He always wears a thin, black ribbon around his neck, and he tends to wear some of his clothing line, Level 27. Bassist Pauls's present hair color is black with a patch of hair blonde, while his black hair is shorter than the blonde piece.

Various Facts/Trivia

• Joel and Benji Madden's original last name is Coombs, which has been legally changed.
• Joel & Benji used to present the MTV show All Things Rock
• Mandy Moore appeared in the band's music video Little Things.
• NSYNC's Chris Kirkpatrick & Kyle Gass of Tenacious D had cameos in the trial section of the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" video. Kirkpatrick is a personal friend of the band.
• Good Charlotte has a cameo in Not Another Teen Movie as the band playing at the school prom.
• Good Charlotte contributed the song "The Click" to the short lived MTV animated series, 'Undergrads'. Towards the end of the series, the band also made cameos in the show.
• Good Charlotte members are PETA activists.
• Benji and Joel Madden co-wrote a song with Ashlee Simpson for Autobiography, which was later cut.
• Joel and Benji Madden helped write and produce 3 new songs on Hilary Duff's Most Wanted Hits.
• Joel is currently dating teen idol, and Lizzie McGuire Star Hilary Duff.
• Good Charlotte's albums & singles haven't been released in the same order in the UK as the USA. Firstly, they're first album was 'The Young & The Hopeless' with 'Lifestyles...' as the first single for them in the country, bypassing 'Little Things', 'Motivation Proclamation' & 'Festival Song' & the entire first album. Then, the TYATH singles were released in a different order - Lifestyles was still first, but 3 months later, 'Girls & Boys' debuted in the UK, before the USA, then 'The Anthem' was released in late August/early September, 7 months after the USA release. 'The Young & The Hopeless was released in December, with 'Hold On' as a double A-Side; however, 'Hold On' was only on TV for 2 weeks before the release, the other singles all had several months behind them. Also, 'We Believe' from 'The Chronicles of Life & Death' was not released in the UK - They did, however, recieve 'The Chronicles of Life & Death' instead.

Discography

Albums

• Good Charlotte (Epic Records) (2000) #185 US
• The Young and the Hopeless (Epic Records) (2002) #7 US (3x Platinum), #15 UK
• The Chronicles of Life and Death (Epic Records) (2004) #3 US (Platinum), #8 UK

EPs

• "Overcome"
• "Can't go on"
• "The Innocent"
• "If you leave"
• "Footloose"
• "Superman can't walk"

Singles

From Good Charlotte:

• "Little Things"
• "Motivation Proclamation"
• "Festival Song"

From The Young and the Hopeless:

• "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (2002) #20 US, #8 UK (2003 release)
• "Girls and Boys" (2003) #48 US, #6 UK
• "The Anthem" (2003) #43 US, #10 UK
• "The Young and the Hopeless"/"Hold On" (2003) #63 US, #34 UK

From The Chronicles of Life and Death:

• "Predictable" (2004) #12 UK
• "I Just Wanna Live" (2005) #51 US, #9 UK
• "The Chronicles of Life and Death" (2005) #30 UK
• "We Believe" (2005)

External links

• Official Site
• Good Charlotte on Epic Records
• Good Charlotte Lyrics sorted by albums

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