[2] In 1993, bassist Thomas Mangold, keyboardist Roland Röhl and drummer Ralf Wochele were invited to join Fool's Garden for recording of the first studio album Once in a Blue Moon.
The band became famous worldwide in 1995 owing to the release of their third studio album Dish of the Day and, in particular, the song "Lemon Tree", which entered numerous music charts around the world and topped five of them.
[3] A series of failures to replicate the commercial success of Dish of the Day in 1997, 2000 and 2003 resulted in tension and disagreement amongst the band's members, and dramatically discredited its reputation in the eyes of record label executives.
Due to the problems caused by the lack of a label ready to work with Fools Garden, the members of the band founded their own company Lemonade Music in 2004.
[12] In order to perform the recorded material live, it was decided to invite bassist Thomas Mangold, keyboardist Roland Röhl and drummer Ralf Wochele, and rename the band to Fool's Garden.
[23] The newly formed band played their first gig in 1991 — Fool's Garden performed as the opening act for Sidney Youngblood in Böblingen.
[13] Due to the lack of the opportunity to rehearse and record songs in a professional studio, the members of the young band were forced to meet several times a week in the living room of Volker Hinkel's parental home.
[17] In the same year, Fool's Garden first appeared on radio, television (TV channels SWR 3 in Stuttgart and Tele 5 in Munich) and began performing their first concerts in Pforzheim, which made them famous in their region.
[19] It is also worth noting that on Fool's Garden and Once in a Blue Moon, the lead vocals were equally divided between Peter Freudenthaler and Volker Hinkel.
The album Once in a Blue Moon turned out to be a commercial failure, resulting in Town Music label suffering heavy losses and even ending up on the verge of bankruptcy.
[6] In the summer of the same year, the quintet participated in 14 open-air concerts, performing as an opening act for the German pop rock band Pur, however already in the autumn Fool's Garden began touring as headliners.
Also in 1996, Fool's Garden's music first appeared in German cinema: the song "Wild Days" was included on the soundtracks for the film "Regular Guys" and the TV series "Freunde fürs Leben".
[44][45][46] Following the commercial success of "Lemon Tree" and Dish of the Day, the band embarked on a worldwide concert tour, playing over 100 shows around the world.
[62] Three years later, on 5 June 2000, Fool's Garden released their next studio album For Sale, which was produced by James Herter, on the Seven Days Music label.
[66] An attempt to release something similar to the biggest hit of the group "Lemon Tree" also failed — for 3 weeks in the German singles chart the song "It Can Happen" could not rise above #86.
After leaving Fool's Garden, Thomas Mangold and Roland Röhl started an advertising agency and a print shop for production of CD and DVD covers in Merklingen.
However, they faced a number of problems in the further promotion of the album 25 Miles to Kissimmee, as due to the breakup of the band Polydor refused to cooperate further with Fool's Garden.
[74] Critics noted a change in band's musical style: Fools Garden moved away from Britpop and switched to guitar-based melodic rock.
[75] The new musical style allowed the band to enter the airplay of radio stations again and the songs from Ready for the Real Life to become the soundtracks for various films, TV shows and commercials.
[86] In 2015, Fools Garden performed cover versions of ten 1990s hit songs by various artists such as Depeche Mode, Annie Lennox, the Backstreet Boys, Bruce Springsteen, No Doubt and Madonna in their usual unique style for the third season of the RTL 90s-themed music show "Formula 1".
[95] In the summer of the same year, Peter Freudenthaler, Volker Hinkel and Jan Hees took part in the recording of songs "ABCD" and "La-rissa" of the Italian music project La Crisi Di Luglio.
Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote that listeners usually learn about Fools Garden due to plays on retro-oriented radio stations (the vast majority includes the song "Lemon Tree"), but over the period of its existence the band has released many good albums.
[106][32] In another article of the same newspaper, it was noted that the group has an attitude towards "old-fashioned pop-rock", but the band's material is quite diverse: "there are things that are heavier and softer, there are ballads and fierce songs, sometimes Freudenthaler even uses autotune."
[44] Joerg Hellwig, head of marketing at Intercord, told Billboard that Fool's Garden's music is "colorful guitar pop with a British touch and clear references to this genre's great tradition, which was perfected by The Beatles and have never been surpassed.
[109] In a review by Danish magazine Gaffa on the next album, Go and Ask Peggy for the Principal Thing, Lars Nielsen wrote that the release continues the "light airy melody" of its predecessor.
[111] After the line-up change, Fools Garden moved away from Britpop and on the following album Ready for the Real Life they switched to "guitar-oriented rock".
[103] The members of Fools Garden also told they adore the music of Pat Metheny,[33] Pete Townshend,[33] Heintje Simons,[19] Status Quo,[19] Noel Gallagher,[92] Half Moon Run,[92] AC/DC,[123] The Rolling Stones,[123] Scorpions[89] and Udo Lindenberg.
[39][35] Wolfgang Spahr, the German Bureau Chief of Billboard, presented Fool's Garden the "Ambassador Award" for great success in Asia in the 1996's final issue.
[15][32] However, despite the fact that, in addition to "Lemon Tree", Fools Garden no longer released commercially successful singles,[125] various sources also highlight other quite popular songs: "Wild Days", "It Can Happen", "Why Did She Go?
[129] Frontman Peter Freudenthaler said in an interview for the Chas newspaper that Fool's Garden is "the third German band after the Scorpions and Modern Talking, which has gained worldwide popularity".