O.A.R.

After building their career as headliners on the American college circuit, O.A.R. transformed themselves into Top 40 hitmakers with mid-2000s singles like "Love and Memories" and "Shattered (Turn the Car Around)." The band formed in 1996 in Rockville, Maryland, adopting the acronym of O.A.R. after their official name, Of A Revolution, proved to be too long to fit onto an album cover. By the time O.A.R.'s full-length debut, The Wanderer, appeared in 1997, the band's lineup had coalesced around frontman Marc Roberge, drummer Chris Culos, guitarist Richard On, and bassist Benj Gershman. Although the independently-released album failed to hit the Billboard charts, "That Was A Crazy Game of Poker" became a popular song on college campuses along the Atlantic seaboard. O.A.R. began playing shows at many of those colleges, developing a grassroots fanbase that only increased with subsequent releases like Soul's Aflame (1999) and Risen (2001). 2003's In Between Now and Then became the band's first release to hit the Billboard 200, where it peaked at Number 54. Two years later, Stories of a Stranger climbed to Number 40, buoyed by the the gold-certified single "Love and Memories" and the Adult Pop Airplay hit "Heard the World." O.A.R. rode this momentum to new heights with 2008's All Sides which reached Number 13 in the US and spawned the band's biggest single, "Shattered (Turn the Car Around)." A Number 2 hit on Adult Pop Airplay, "Shattered (Turn the Car Around)" also reached Number 36 on the Hot 100. Even so, the Adult Pop Airplay chart remained O.A.R.'s bread and butter, and the group scored additional Top 40 hits on that chart with songs like "Heaven" (from 2011's King), "Peace" (from 2014's The Rockville LP), and "In the Clouds" (from 2022's The Arcade).

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