Plain White T's
Plain White T's are an alternative rock band from Chicago. Their newest release, Every Second Counts (2006), was the first Plain White T's album to reach the mainstream. When the album came out, one song, Hey There Delilah, an acoustic love song, was played on many radio stations daily. Another famous song of theirs is Our Time Now.
Plain White T's | |
|---|---|
 Plain White T's in 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Lombard, Illinois, USA |
| Genres | Pop rock Pop punk Power pop |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Labels | Atlantic Fearless Hollywood (2006-present) |
| Website | Official website / UK website |
| Members | Tom Higgenson Dave Tirio Mike Retondo De'Mar Hamilton Tim Lopez |
| Past members | Steve Mast Ken Fletcher |
Biography
Formation
The singer of the band, Tom Higgenson, first wanted to be a drummer. He was in many bands during his High School. However, when Plain White T's were made, he decided to become a singer and a songwriter. Bassist, Ken Fletcher, and drummer, Dave Tirio, joined the band began performing in Downers Grove, Illinois.
Early Career, 1999- 2001
They started out by playing other people's songs, but in the summer of 1999 the band was beginning to become known by record labels like Atlantic Recordings. In 2000 they released their first album, "Come On Over". They toured around Chicago to try and make the album sell more and to get more fans.
Stop 2001-2004
At the end of 2001, Plain White T's left Atlantic Recordings and signed to Fearless Records. They began recording for their next album, called "Stop". They chose in Downers Grove, Illinois and Santa Barbara, California. The album took four months to record, being finished in April 2002. The album was shown around Plain White T's home town before being released finally on August 20th 2002, a whole twenty months after it was started.
In October, the band went on their first big tour. The tour in the band ending up stopping being friends, this was solved with new members, with Dave switching from drums to guitar, Steve being replaced by Tim Lopez, Ken being replaced by Mike Retondo and De'Mar Hamilton taking up drums.
All That We Needed 2004-2006
The band went into the studio to record their next album, called "All That We Needed",in May 2004. After recording the album, they toured the US. During this tour, they released their first single, All That We Needed. They then promoted the album internationally, gathering a growing fanbase, before heading back for the 2005 Take Action Tour.
During the "Take Action Tour '05", Plain White T's recorded their first music video with a single which they hoped would be more famous than "All That We Needed" .
Every Second Counts era 2006-present
In 2006 they signed to another new label, Hollywood Records, and then began recording a new album. Shortly before the release of the album, the single "Hate (I Really Don't Like You)" was released, it was the first single by them to achieve noticeable success.
Plain White T's started touring in Winter and Autumn of 2006. By this time they were starting to get noticed in the music industry at last. Although they were beginning to get noticed in the minor US rock industry, internationally Plain White Ts were not doing so well, by this point, they had not even sold 100,000 copies of any album anywhere outside of the US. Hollywood Records thought that re-releasing "Hey There Delilah" would make the band famous.
Breakthrough: Hey There Delilah
"Hey There Delilah" is an acoustic song, first released as a single in May 2006 as chasing cars, and was the last track in the band's first album, All That We Needed. One year later, in 2007, the song became the band's first mainstream hit. On 11 July 2007, the song reached number one for sales in the Billboard Hot 100. One month later, the song became a hit single all over the world. Hey There Delilah reached number two in the UK Singles Chart and Ireland Singles Chart, number four in the Australian chart and number six in the United World Chart. Its popularity made it to #1 in other countries like Germany and Canada.
Discography
Albums
| Date of Release | Title | Label | US Billboard | UK | Australia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Come On Over | Atlantic | |||
| 2002 | Stop | Fearless Records | |||
| 2005 | All That We Needed | Fearless Records | |||
| 2006 | Every Second Counts | Hollywood | 10 | 3 | 55 |
Singles
| Year | Song | Billboard Hot 100|U.S. Hot 100 | Pop 100|U.S. Pop 100 | Hot Modern Rock Tracks|U.S. Modern Rock | Hot Digital Songs | UK Singles Chart|UK | Media Control Charts|GER | Recording Industry Association of New Zealand|NZ | Canadian Hot 100|CAN | ARIA Charts|AUS | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | "All That We Needed" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | All That We Needed |
| 2005 | "Take Me Away" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2006 | "Hey There Delilah" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "Hate (I Really Don't Like You)" | 68 | 61 | 25 | 48 | 53 | - | - | - | - | Every Second Counts | |
| 2007 | "Hey There Delilah" (Re-release) | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3 | |
| "Our Time Now" | 90 | 66 | 29 | - | - | - | - | - | 75 |
Other websites
- Plain White Ts Official website
- MySpace Profile
- Plain White Ts French website Archived 2008-04-04 at the Wayback Machine
- Trash the Stage interview with De'Mar Archived 2009-04-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Interview with Plain White Ts Archived 2007-07-01 at the Wayback Machine
- Interview with Plain White Ts by Jamie Pham on TheSoCalScene Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Plain White T's Interview on Music Towers Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine