The Fray

The Fray first formed their band in 2002 in Denver, Colorado. It began when friends Isaac Slade and Joe King met up in a local Guitar Center and began jamming out together. Impressed with each other’s talent, and interested in pursuing it further, Slade and King started writing songs together and distinguishing their own sound, inspired by artists such as U2, Counting Crows, and Coldplay. Needing more than a two-man band, Slade and King added Zach Johnson and Slade’s brother Caleb Slade to their band. Since Johnson had to leave the band to go to an art school in New York, Ben Wysocki replaced Johnson as the new drummer of the band. The guys all agreed to name their band “The Fray” after reading proposals placed in a suggestion bowl that Caleb had at his graduation party. Caleb eventually departed from the band, and was replaced by Dave Welsh, a guitarist also from Colorado.

The group struggled at first, when they tried releasing a couple of short albums with little success. The Fray released 8 different songs to their local Denver radio station KTCL, and were rejected each time. Even after being denied repeatedly, the band decided to give it one more shot by submitting their single “Cable Car.” Finally the band got their big break when the single debuted on the radio and received praise from the public. People kept calling in to request to hear “Cable Car” until it eventually became one of KTCL’s top thirty most played songs of 2004. This local success eventually turned into global success when the Denver readers of Westword alternative newsweekly voted The Fray, “Best New Band.” Epic records read the publication, liked what they heard, and officially signed the band to their label thereafter.

The Fray’s debut album How to Save a Life was released in September 2005. The band decided to change the name of their hit single “Cable Car” to “Over My Head (Cable Car),” which became the most played song of the year on Denver’s local radio station. The Fray’s popularity gradually shifted from locally to globally, when the single kept gaining more airplay nationally. Eventually the single ended up on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in late 2005, and the Billboard Hot 100 charts in early 2006. It was clear that their first single was a huge success due to radio play, but their second single “How to Save a Life” gained its fame in a different way. By receiving exposure from being played on hit television series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, and One Tree Hill, “How to Save a Life” became one of the most downloaded songs on iTunes. Although The Fray had not formally released “How to Save a Life” as a single, it received so much publicity through these popular television shows that it placed on the Hot 100 charts in April of 2006. After the Fray officially released “How to Save a Life” as their second single, ABC decided to use the song as a marketing tool to promote the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy. Because of this worldwide exposure, the song placed in the top 3 on the Hot 100 chart, and became a huge hit in Bulgaria, Ireland, Canada, and the UK.

To promote the album further, The Fray performed on popular talk shows such as, The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman. As of early 2007, their album How to Save a Life was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA, and sold over 2,000,000 copies in the United States alone. In 2006, The Fray was nominated for two Grammy Awards including, “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal” and “Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.”

The band also recorded a cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over),” and released it to iTunes in time for Christmas 2006. The song was heavily downloaded and even placed on the Billboard Hot 100. Their third single, “Look After You” was not as big of a success as The Fray’s first two hits were, but it still made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 placing at number 59.

With Isaac Slade on lead vocals and piano, Joe King on vocals and guitar, Dave Welsh on guitar, and Ben Wysocki on drums and percussion, The Fray has become one of the most popular pop/rock bands in the world. With only two major hit singles under their belt, they have managed to sweep the nation and win over music lovers everywhere.

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