McFly's debut album, Room on the 3rd Floor, debuted at #1 in the UK album chart and is certified as double platinum, this led to the band becoming known as the youngest band ever to have an album debut at #1 – a title taken from The Beatles. A month after the album was released, the band had their first UK headlining tour. The band's second album, Wonderland, also charted at #1 in the UK, and was released in 2005. Their third album, Motion in the Ocean, was released on 6 November 2006 and charted at #6 in the UK. McFly released their All the Greatest Hits compilation album on 5 November 2007, which charted at #4 in the UK. The band's fourth studio album, Radio:Active, was given away for free as a supplement in The Mail on Sunday on 20 July 2008, before being released in the conventional manner on 22 September 2008. As of December 2008, McFly have had sixteen consecutive top twenty singles, seven of which reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart and fifteen of which were consecutive top ten singles.
McFly appeared in the teen comedy film Just My Luck, starring Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine, in 2006. The band played themselves in the film and released a US album, Just My Luck, which was also used as the film's soundtrack. The group have also performed at various charity projects such as Comic Relief, Live 8 and Sport Relief.
McFly was founded and named by front man Tom Fletcher, after he auditioned for Busted, but lost out on the place to Charlie Simpson. Originally, Tomr was accepted as part of Busted's line-up, however, the Island record label went on to reassess the situation, eventually deciding to have the band as a three's not rather than a foursome. Tom states that he was in the band "for approximately 24 hours." Though the record label decided against offering Tom a place in Busted, they were intrigued by his song-writings talents, and later offered him a place on the Busted songwriting 'team', alongside band member James Bourne, Tom has since stated that it was James who taught him how to "properly" structure songs, and how to "come up with good, poppy melodies".
During the writing project for Busted's second album, A Present For Everyone, Tom was asked by the record label if he was available to film auditions for a new band, V. It was at this time that Danny Jones and Tom met for the first time, Danny went to the audition mistaking the band to be an instrumental band, rather than the conventional, all-singing, all-dancing band, for which they were intended. Tom was impressed with Danny's unique style, and so approached and invited him to write with himself and James. When writing projects for Busted had come to an end, the three began collaborating for their own band, and eventually, moved into the InterContinental Hotel in London for two months to concentrate on writing together. Bassist Dougie Poynter and drummer Harry Judd were subsequently recruited via a classified advertisement in the NME magazine. Both Essex lads, the pair turned up, coincidentally, at the same audition, and got to talking over their shared appreciation of the band The Starting Line, after Dougie noticed their name and logo was printed on Harry's t shirt. The name McFly was eventually decided upon as the band name. Tom proposed the idea, based on his love for the American science-fiction comedy Back to the Future trilogy and Michael J. Fox's character Marty McFly.
Super Records Ltd. is an independent label operated and owned by McFly. Initially McFly were signed to major record outlet Universal Island Records. Although leaving Universal, McFly's singles are distributed by a company named "Absolute" who also distribute for acts like Cascada and Jay Sean and are part of the Universal Group. Super Records was created after McFly decided to leave Island, Universal Records at the end of 2007.
