Maroon 5 Lyrics

The four original members of Maroon 5 have known each other since attending Brentwood School together in Los Angeles. While attending Brentwood School, Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael joined up with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form Kara's Flowers, a garage/grunge band.

The name was taken from a girl that the band had a "collective crush" on. The band played its first gig at Whisky a Go Go on September 16, 1995. While they were playing a beach party in Malibu, indie producer Tim Allen heard them playing and offered to manage them, which eventually led to their deal with Reprise Records and producer Rob Cavallo. Very early on, their sound was what Carmichael called "Fugazi and System of Down [the sound] meets [sic] Sesame Street [the lyrics]". However, by the release of The Fourth World in 1997, they had morphed into band reminiscent of 1960s Brit pop. Despite high expectations from the band and record company, the album failed to catch on and their lead single, "Soap Disco", was a failure.

According to Levine, the failure of the album was "a huge disappointment" that nearly led them to break up in 1998. Levine and Carmichael went to college in Long Island, New York, while Madden and Dusick stayed home in L.A....