Good Charlotte is a pop punk band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. They took their name from a children's book: Good Charlotte: The Girls Of Good Day Orphanage by Carol Beach York. They have released 3 albums, most notably 2002's multiplatinum seller The Young and the Hopeless, which spawned the chart topping singles, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," "The Anthem," and "Girls and Boys." A new album, Good Morning Revival will be released March 27th, 2007. The band is fronted by identical twin brothers Benji and Joel Madden. Other members of the band include their friends Billy Martin, Paul Thomas and Dean Butterworth on the drums.
 

History
Getting noticed
In 1999 Good Charlotte garnered popularity by playing clubs and small venues. They caught the attention of post grunge band Lit (whose song "My Own Worst Enemy" was a chart topper at the time). Good Charlotte filled the opening slot on Lit's east coast tour in 1999. Soon after, Good Charlotte played some dates with Blink-182, who had just experienced mainstream success with their Enema of The State album. Good Charlotte's demo started to get passed around and eventually ended up in the hands of (now defunct) Philadelphia modern rock station Y100 who spun Good Charlotte's song "Little Things." It ended up being a big success on the station, so big in fact that on Y100's nightly "Cage Match" competition (where new songs were pitted against each other and listeners could vote on which was better), "Little Things" won fifteen nights in a row, beating out bigger names. All of this caught the attention of major music labels. Good Charlotte signed with Epic Records in 1999. Recently the band was mentioned in the webcomic series 'Less Than Famous', in their comic strip "Betrayed"
The young and the hopeless
2002's The Young and the Hopeless marked the band's emergence into mainstream popularity. Their breakthrough single, titled "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", topped both pop and rock charts around the globe. Singles that followed from that album include "The Anthem", "Girls and Boys", "Hold On" and "The Young and The Hopeless".
The album eventually went on to receive a 3x-platinum certification (3 million copies sold) from the RIAA. During the course of the album's success, Good Charlotte landed appearances on Saturday Night Live, CNN, and The Today Show, the covers of Rolling Stone and Alternative PressThe New York Times. They also became popular on MTV, where their music videos were played in heavy rotation on both MTV and MTV2. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" received the "Viewers Choice Award" at MTV's 2003 Video Music Awards. magazines, and were also featured in
In 2003 the band added Chris Wilson, who was introduced to the band from mutual friends in the band The Used, as a permanent drummer.
The Chronicles Of Life And Death
Good Charlotte's third album, The Chronicles of Life and Death, was released in 2004. The album received mixed reactions from both the music press and Good Charlotte's fanbase. The album has been widely considered a departure from their previous two albums, mixing new elements such as strings, synths, and more mature lyrical topics into Good Charlotte's youthful power-pop sound. Singles released from the album include the 2 hits "Predictable" and "I Just Wanna Live", as well as "We Believe" and "The Chronicles of Life and Death".
In May 2005, after much speculation from fans, it was officially confirmed that Chris Wilson had left the band citing personal health reasons. Benji also told Kerrang! magazine that, for him, Chris leaving the band was the worst part of 2005. Chris now plays drums in the pop-rock band The Summer Obsession.
For Good Charlotte's tour, "Noise to the World Tour" with Simple Plan and Relient K, the band recruited Dean Butterworth, previously of Morrissey, as the band's temporary drummer. In August 2005, Butterworth was confirmed as the band's permanent drummer.
Benji Madden has claimed in interviews that he feels this record was not as successful as the previous record due to it being "too selfish".
 
Good Morning Revival
Good Morning Revival is the fourth album by Good Charlotte and the follow up to 2004's The Chronicles of Life and Death.
The album has not yet been released. The original release of the album was in June 2006. Good Charlotte then moved it back to October, after which they pushed it back again to February. Recently, lead singer Joel Madden said in an interview with MuchMusic that the album release has been pushed back once more to March 5th, 2007 . On December 6th, 2006, the band's website intro showed that the album will now be released March 20th, 2007. Recently the band posted a new message on their website saying that the album will be released March 27th, 2007.
On Good Charlotte's website, Benji Madden posted a video and announced that the song "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" would be posted on the band's MySpace. The song premiered September 22nd, 2006 online and it is available now to hear at the band's MySpace[2] account and at the Good Charlotte website. Later, a video for the song was posted in the band's MySpace page on October 26th, 2006. The first single from the album, The River, featuring Avenged Sevenfold's lead singer, M. Shadows and guitarist Synyster Gates, appeared online January 4th, 2007.
At midnight, on January 23rd, the forthcoming record was made available for pre-order on iTunes. When pre-ordered, the single, "The River" is downloaded immediately, while the rest of the album is queued to be downloaded on the released date. Pre-ordering on iTunes also provides the exclusive bonus version of the aforementioned single, and a music video of an acoustic session of the song, "Misery".
As well as The River being released as the first single from the album, Keep Your Hands Off My Girl will be released as the first single in the UK.See Video Two music videos for this song, the one posted on the official site in late 2006 and a newer version featuring fans of the band, are currently doing the rounds on the UK rock music video channels. The release date for Keep Your Hands Off My Girl is 12 March 07.