On his joining the band, Valentine commented: "I became friends with them and we sort of started jamming together, it was very much like I was cheating on my band, we were having sort of an affair and I eventually quit my other band to join up with them." Even still, the only songs of their repertoire that showcased the band's new direction were "Sunday Morning" and the soon-to-be-written "She Will Be Loved"-neither of which the label approved of as a first single.
While they were in high school, lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album in 1997. After a brief period they re-formed with guitarist James Valentine, and pursued a new, more pop-oriented direction as Maroon 5.
In 2004 they released their debut album Songs About Jane, which contained four hit singles: "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved" and "Sunday Morning"; it also enjoyed major chart success, going gold, platinum, and triple platinum in many countries around the world.

Over the next three years, the band toured virtually non-stop, including visits to seventeen countries.