You “Aughta” Know: Simple Plan, NO PADS, NO HELMETS... JUST BALLS

Welcome back to “You ‘Aughta’ Know,” where we take a look back at an album from the 2000s that was released on or around this day. In this instance, our topic du jour is... Well, in this case, the album was actually released on March 19, 2002, so it wasn’t really anywhere near this day, but we’re gonna run with it anyway, mostly because it was one of those albums that had such a slow build that most people didn’t pay a lot of attention when it first came out anyway.

No, seriously: NO PADS, NO HELMETS... JUST BALLS came out in March 2002, preceded by the single “I’m Just a Kid,” but the second single, “I’d Do Anything,” didn’t come out until October, and the third and fourth singles didn’t come out until the summer of the following year. Those two belated singles, of course, were timed very specifically to Simple Plan’s stint on the Warped Tour, where they continued to pick up a plethora of new fans.

Produced by Arnold Lanni, NO PADS, NO HELMETS... JUST BALLS featured two collaborations with high-profile folks: Joel Madden from Good Charlotte appeared on “You Don’t Me Anything,” while Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 popped up on “I’d Do Anything.” Is that why the album ended up going double-platinum in both the US and Canada? Maybe, maybe not, but it certainly didn’t hurt. In fact, it actually did better in Canada, hitting #8 on the Canadian Albums chart, whereas in the States it topped out at only #35. But whatever: it went double platinum, and that’s what counts.