In December 1986, lead vocalist John Spence founded No Doubt in Anaheim, California with his friend Eric Stefani on keyboards and Eric's younger sister Gwen as co-vocalist. The band from then on began to play small gigs around the Orange County area. Tony Kanal went to one of these early shows and soon joined the band as its bassist. In December 1987, lead vocalist Spence committed suicide, leaving Gwen Stefani as lead vocalist. Although the band was hit hard by Spence's death, they carried on and began to develop a live following, mainly in the band's home state of California.
In 1988 and 1989, two new members were added to the band: Tom Dumont (guitar) and Adrian Young (drums).
In 1991, the band received its first big break and were signed to the American record label Interscope Records. No Doubt's self-titled debut album was released in 1992 and featured the single "Trapped in a Box". The album's distinctly pop sound sharply contrasted with the grunge movement, and the album was a commercial failure, selling only 30,000 copies. Interscope lost faith in the band and refused to support the band's tour or its further recordings.
The band began work on its next album the next year but suffered another setback when Eric Stefani left in 1994 to pursue an animation career on the cartoon TV series The Simpsons. Eric once added the band in a shot of Homer in the episode "Homerpalooza". Tony Kanal then ended a seven-year relationship with Gwen Stefani that had been kept secret from the band, saying that he needed "space". In 1995, the band released The Beacon Street Collection, which had been funded by the band and, when released, renewed faith in the band from the record label. Later that year, the label released Tragic Kingdom, much of which dealt with the relationship between Tony Kanal and Gwen Stefani.
The release of 1995's Tragic Kingdom and the New Wave inspired single "Just a Girl" allowed the group to achieve mainstream commercial success. A second single, "Spiderwebs", was also successful, and their third single, "Don't Speak", which was written about the dissolution of Stefani's and bassist Tony Kanal's romantic relationship, was a number one hit for 16 weeks on the Billboard airplay chart. Tragic Kingdom was certified diamond in the United States and is one of the best-selling albums in history. No Doubt was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album (Tragic Kingdom) at the 1997 Grammy Awards. Later, they were nominated for two more Grammies for Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, both for "Don't Speak".
The album's release fueled a dispute between Trauma Records and Trauma's distributor, Interscope Records, over No Doubt's recording contract. Trauma sued for US$100 million for breach of contract, fraud, and extortion. The case was settled out of court with a $3 million payment.
In 1998, Reel Big Fish, another ska punk band, released its album Why Do They Rock So Hard?. The song "She's Famous Now" was commonly interpreted to be about a relationship between Reel Big Fish frontman Aaron Barrett and Gwen Stefani and Stefani's subsequent success with No Doubt; however, Barrett later stated that he "was just trying to start a rumor".
After some time in-between albums, No Doubt included its song "New" on the soundtrack to the movie Go in 1999. "New", inspired by Gwen's budding relationship with Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale, was one of the first songs written after the release of Tragic Kingdom.
In 2000, the band released Return of Saturn, its follow-up to Tragic Kingdom. The album featured a darker tone and was more lyrically advanced than No Doubt's previous work. The main lyrical focus of the new record had shifted from Gwen Stefani's relationship with bassist Tony Kanal to her new relationship with Gavin Rossdale. Return of Saturn was critically acclaimed, but was not as commercially successful as their previous album, and the lead single "Ex-Girlfriend" failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Also released as singles from the album were the tracks "Simple Kind of Life" and "Bathwater".
Shaking off the commercial failure of Return of Saturn, the band quickly began work on their next album. Highly influenced by Jamaican dancehall music and recorded primarily in Jamaica, No Doubt's 2001 studio album, Rock Steady, produced two hit Grammy-winning singles, "Hey Baby", which featured Bounty Killer, and "Underneath It All", which featured the first lady of dancehall, Lady Saw. Both singles managed to reach the top five on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also released "Hella Good" and "Running" as singles. Also, in 2001, the band performed on Kelis's sophomore CD titled Wanderland. The song "Perfect Day" features the band playing the entire song with Gwen providing backup vocals. In addition, pop-star Prince wrote and produced "Waiting Room" on Rock Steady. Stefani had previously provided vocals for a song on Prince's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic album, "So Far, So Pleased". In November 2002, No Doubt made an appearance in the Dawson's Creek episode "Spiderwebs".
2003 was a big year of releases for No Doubt. The album The Singles: 1992-2003, a compilation of all commercially released singles from the band, was released in November 2003. It included a cover of the song "It's My Life", which had originally been a hit for synthpop group Talk Talk in 1984, and earned No Doubt a Grammy nomination for Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. Additionally, a special 2-CD 2-DVD box set titled Boom Box was made available, which included the CDs The Singles: 1992-2003 and Everything in Time and the DVDs The Videos: 1992-2003 and Live in the Tragic Kingdom. Separately, Rock Steady Live, a DVD of the band performing in Long Beach from their Rock Steady tour was released in 2003 as well. The next year, the band was featured in a re-recording of the Toots & the Maytals classic ska song "Monkey Man".
Lead singer Gwen Stefani began work on her side project in 2002, which eventually evolved into the full-fledged solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., released on November 23, 2004. The album reached multi-platinum status in several countries, including a quintuple platinum certification in Canada and triple platinum in the U.S. Stefani launched her first solo arena tour in October 2005, which coincided with the news of her pregnancy (with her baby boy, Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, born on May 26, 2006).
In early 2005, Tom Dumont released his own solo music project, Invincible Overlord, with friend and collaborator Ted Matson. Their music is downloadable for free on the group's web site, and they backed up Matt Costa on his 2005 tour. Adrian Young, the band's drummer, did the drums for Bow Wow Wow's 2004 tour and many of the tracks on Unwritten Law's 2005 release, Here's to the Mourning, as well as featuring on several shows in 2006 for theSTART. Young will also be playing on Rockstar: Supernova runner-up Dilana's upcoming album.
On December 5, 2006, Gwen Stefani released her second solo album, The Sweet Escape. With Stefani promoting her sophomore solo album, and a national tour in 2007, No Doubt has begun work on a new album and plans to complete it after Stefani's tour is finished.
