Twenty years ago on this Saturday, John Mayer‘s major-label debut, Room for Squares, was released. No overnight success, the album steadily climbed the charts until it finally reached the top 10 in 2002. Here are Five Fascinating Facts about Room for Squares:
5. The album’s title is a play on the title of a 1963 album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley called No Room for Squares.
4. The original version of the album was released online in June of 2001, but after John landed a record deal with Columbia, the label remixed and re-released it with new artwork, an extra track called “3X5,” and four reworked songs from John’s 1999 indie EP Inside Wants Out.
3. John co-wrote several songs on Room for Squares, including “No Such Thing,” with his former college buddy Clay Cook, who’s now a member of the superstar country group Zac Brown Band.
2. By the end of 2002, Room for Squares had spun off the hits “No Such Thing,” “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Why Georgia.” In 2003, John won his first Grammy for “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”
1. In 2006, John allowed the TV show The Office to use “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” in exchange for a “Dundie” — a fictitious award given out by Steve Carell‘s character — for “Tallest Music Dude.”
20 years on, John Mayer still matters. He just won an MTV VMA last Sunday, and his current album, Sob Rock, released in July, became his 10th top 10 album.
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