Well Green Day first appeared in the band Sweet Children. Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt are the actual founders of the band Sweet Children, now we know the band as Green Day. Billie Joe and Mike Dirnt first met at school in Crockett, California. At sleepovers Billie and Mike used to surf the channels of the radio to rock classics such as Ozzy Osbourne. Later the band added a drummer Al Sobrante who played the drums on 1,039 / Smoothed out Slappy Hours.
In 1990 Green Day released their first album 1,039 / Smoothed out Slappy Hours. This album is actually combination a combonation of a few of Green Day’s first EP’s. The EP’s that the songs were from are 39/Smoothed, Slappy – EP, 1000 Hours – EP, and from the compilation album The Big One. These few EP’s make up the name 1,039 / Smoothed out Slappy Hours that was released by Lookout! Records. Soon after 1,039 / Smoothed out Slappy Hours was released Al Sobrante decided to leave the band and continue college. Green Day went to Lawrence Livermore who was the owner of Lookout! Records and Livermore in the band The Lookouts. Livermore had Tre Cool join the band and Tre debuted on Green Day’s second album Kerplunk!
As I said before Kerplunk is Green Day’s second album and this was the first time that Tre Cool was introduced as part of Green Day. The success of Kerplunk led to a wave of interest from major record labels! The band decided to sign to the major record label Reprise Records.
Dookie is Green Days third album and thanks to MTV’s support with the single “Longview”, Dookie became a major success! The second single “Basket Case” was #1 on charts for weeks. At the end of the summer of 1994 Green Day played at Woodstock and this show made sales of Dookie increase even more! Dookie had sold over 10 million copies alone in the US. Dookie won the 1994 Grammy award for Best Alternative Music Performance.
On Green Days next albums Insomniac and Nimrod, Green Day played the same punk music. The number one hit of off Nimrod was the acoustic song “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”. “Good Riddance” was used in the final episode of the TV show Seinfeld. “Good Riddance” seamed to always be used in somewhat sad situations.
Then Green Day came back in the fall of 2000 with their album Warning. This album seemed to have a pop feel to the record. One of the most famous songs off the record was “Minority”. “Minority” is the fastest of any Green Day’s songs to hit #1 on charts.
Green Day’s latest album is American Idiot. This album is the most political out of all of Green Day’s albums. The album is mostly against the American media and government. The title track “American Idiot” was the bands success. Green Day was now the most famous bands in the world in 2004 and 2005. You could just walk down the street and you would see many people wearing Green Day shirts. Also in the summer of 2005 Green Day took home seven MTV Music Video Awards.
Most recently, Green Day has been helping with many charities, such as Music Rising, which is an organization that gives instruments back to the musicians that lost their instruments in Hurricane Katrina. Green Day played the song “The Saints are Coming” at the opening football game at the Super Dome with U2. Green Day is now working on a John Lennon cover, “Working Class Hero”, which will appear on the album Instant Karma which will release in June. So Green Day is the best band in the world and does not just care about themselves, they are giving towards charities and good organizations.
By:
Jimmy
