Matchbox Twenty Biography

Matchbox Twenty (originally Matchbox 20) is a Pop rock band from Orlando, Florida, who have sold in excess of 39 million albums worldwide. The current members of the band are Rob Thomas, Brian Yale, Paul Doucette, and Kyle Cook. Adam Gaynor is a former member of the band, however has played on all of the band's studio albums to date.

Thomas, Yale and Doucette played in the band Tabitha's Secret before splitting apart to form Matchbox 20 with Cook and Gaynor.

Matchbox 20 released their first album, Yourself or Someone Like You in 1996. While their first single, "Long Day", was a rock radio-only smash, the album soon spun off several Top 40 hit singles throughout 1997 and 1998, including "Push", "3 A.M.", "Real World" and "Back 2 Good". The album eventually went on to sell over 12 million copies in the U.S. alone, earning diamond status. That same year, Matchbox 20 recorded a live version of their Top-40 hit "3 AM" for release on the charity album Live in the X Lounge, benefiting cerebral palsy research.

Before recording their next album, Itaal Shur, Carlos Santana and Thomas wrote a song for Santana's comeback album, Supernatural, on which Thomas sang lead vocals. The song, "Smooth", became the album's lead single and a gigantic hit in 1999; Shur, Thomas and Santana earned several Grammys for writing "Smooth".

In 2000, Matchbox 20 renamed themselves Matchbox Twenty and released their second album, Mad Season. The video for their first hit single, "Bent", made fun of singer Thomas' heightened profile by showing the other band members mug and beat him mercilessly. The evocatively arranged ballad "If You're Gone" became a big hit, especially on adult contemporary formats; "Mad Season" was also released as a single, though was the band's least successful single at the time, however the singles that followed, Angry and Last Beautiful Girl showed even more of a slide in success.

For their third album, the other band members demanded equal songwriting credit. Sharing the songwriting proved successful as Matchbox Twenty's third release More Than You Think You Are was afforded a high playrate on both commercial and independent radio for more than a year and a half with several hit singles including "Disease", "Bright Lights" and "Unwell", which topped the charts for 20 weeks in 2003.

In May 2004, the band released a concert DVD, Show: A Night in the Life of Matchbox Twenty, featuring 20 songs, including all of their hit singles.

In February 2005, rhythm guitarist Gaynor officially left the group, which had been on hiatus to allow other members to pursue side projects. Rob Thomas has released some solo work, including the US Billboard 200 #1 album, ...Something To Be which features the top ten hit, "Lonely No More".

In early 2006, Rob Thomas told Billboard.com that he hoped Matchbox Twenty would get back together in the fall to record their fourth studio album.

These are all singles released either commercially or that attained radioplay. These are noted chronologically.