Marvelous 3

Marvelous 3 is an American rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. They are best known for their 1998 song "Freak of the Week."

History

Marvelous 3 was formed by lead singer/guitarist Butch Walker, bass guitarist Jayce Fincher, and drummer Doug Mitchell (a.k.a. Mitch "Slug" McLee.) All three band members had played together previously in glam outfit SouthGang, Floyds Funk Revival and The Floyds, before reemerging as Marvelous 3 in 1997 when they released their first album, Math and Other Problems, which would sell just over 4,000 copies by January 2000.

The band's most successful album – Hey! Album – was released in fall 1998 with the lead single "Freak of the Week" reaching No. 5 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 23 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The band toured with bands such as Collective Soul, SR-71, Dynamite Hack and Train and appeared on the WB television show Charmed. By 2000, Hey! Album had sold 90,000 copies in the US.

The band acrimoniously separated from label Elektra Records in spring 2001, as Walker documented on the band's official website in April 2001:

There has been an incredible amount of "lack of interest" for the band over at Elektra ('cough, ahem, Neglectra, cough, cough') Records lately, and that comes as no surprise, seeing that every record they put out most recently, sinks like a dead, anchored body in the Hudson River...Well, the time has come. We are free from Elektra. I asked them to let us go, and they did. WE DID NOT GET DROPPED.. I ASKED TO LEAVE.

Following a final tour, in which the band headlined the Atlanta Music Midtown festival in May 2001, they ended with a final farewell show at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in August 2001. By their breakup, the band's Elektra albums had sold a combined total of 133,000 copies, with their last album ReadySexGo selling 32,216 copies.

Butch Walker went on to become a successful solo artist, songwriter and record producer, creating hit records for Avril Lavigne, Bowling for Soup, Pink, Fall Out Boy, Lit and SR-71.

Marvelous 3 reunited with an advertised appearance at The Autumn Leaves benefit show on November 4, 2018 and performed a 6-song set at the end of Butch Walker's solo headlining set, after having only played together at a handful of Butch's Atlanta solo shows since 2001.

On April 25, 2023, Butch Walker announced on Atlanta's 99X that the band was getting back together for a new album, a re-release of "Hey Album," and a show on October 27, 2023, at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. This then turned into 3 sold out shows at the Tabernacle and 2 subsequent shows at Chicago's House of Blues.

The band released a new studio album, IV, on October 13, 2023 after a 22 year hiatus.

Band members

• Butch Walker – lead vocals, guitar
• Jayce Fincher – bass guitar
• Doug Mitchell (a.k.a. Mitch "Slug" McLee) – drums

Discography

• Math and Other Problems August 12, 1997
• Hey! Album October 27, 1998
• ReadySexGo September 12, 2000 – #196 US
• IV October 13, 2023

• "Freak of the Week" from Hey! Album – #5 Alternative, #23 Mainstream Rock, #112 Billboard Hot 100
• "Every Monday" from Hey! Album
• "Sugarbuzz" from Ready, Sex, Go
• "Get Over" from Ready, Sex, Go
• "My Old School Metal Heart" from IV
• "If We're On Fire (Let It Burn)" from IV

Guest appearances

Marvelous 3 have had multiple single-night reunions in Atlanta since the band's 2001 split. Most often, Fincher and McLee have joined Butch Walker during encores of his solo shows, resurrecting material from the band's three releases and prior tours.

Walker and Fincher lent background vocals to "Over Tokyo", a track from Collective Soul's 2000 album Blender.