Trivia / Busted

• Approval of God: The inspiration for Ms. Mackenzie in "What I Go to School For", Matt Willis's former dance teacher Michelle Blair, described it as "flattering" and her husband found it Actually Pretty Funny.
• Breakup Breakout: Fightstar, the band Charlie quit Busted to perform in, were much more successful than James and Matt’s musical efforts post-Busted, although Matt found success as a television host following his time on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2006.
• Creator Backlash: From Charlie, until he rejoined.
• Creator Breakdown:
  • Part of the reason Charlie left the band in 2005, as the band's music wasn't entirely fulfilling him and he wanted to do other things musically, as well as the formation of Fightstar.
  • "What Happened to Your Band?" is based around James' experiences in the immediate aftermath of Busted’s break-up.
• He Also Did: Charlie wrote and performed the vocals for "Avenue of Heroes" by This Is Menace. Not only is it one of his best vocal performances to date, it's also one of the best pieces of proof that Charlie really is a Man of a Thousand Voices.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The original uncensored version of "Who's David" was only released on an initial demo disc of songs from their second album. Later releases of the album and song have only the censored radio version. The only place you're going to find the original version are in low quality uploads on YouTube, since no one has a higher quality upload anywhere and their old record label has yet to release it. The same can be said for the uncensored versions of some of their other songs, but those never had the original versions released anywhere.
  • The 2023 Greatest Hits 2.0 rerecording of 'Falling For You' alleviates this a bit by presenting a studio recorded version with an uncensored version of the line, "You showed up at my door, just like in a teen movie. I said, 'Are you the whore I pay to come and screw me?'". However, the 2.0 version of 'Who's David' still uses the censored version of the chorus "Somebody saw you sleep around the town" instead of "You're just a whore who sleeps around the town," sadly, and they've gone back to performing the censored version live, unfortunately, after performing the uncensored version live for the first time in 2016. However, the use of "bitch" is finally uncensored on it.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": 2 major examples.
  • Greatest. Hits 2.0 for international fans where their first album isn't available is where any versions of 'Loser Kid' and 'Everything I Knew' are.
  • The 2004 self-titled US compilation album is where more songs from their first 2 albums and some singles were. Their first album isn't available in the US for some reason while their second is, though. Though, this was a more deliberate effort as they were trying to be marketed to the US market with their best songs.
• Money, Dear Boy: A subversion. While Charlie flat out admitted this is why he rejoined, as Fightstar wasn't earning him enough money to live on anymore, it doesn't mean he's not having fun.
• The Other Darrin: When performing with McFly as McBusted, Matt, James, Tom Fletcher, and Danny Jones filled in for Charlie's parts of Busted's songs.
• The Pete Best:
  • Founding members Ki Fitzgerald and Owen Doyle.
  • Tom Fletcher was briefly a member before it was decided to have the band be a trio. That being said, he would remain friends with the band and would go on to form his own band soon after.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • South African YouTube musician Cobus was picked up by the band as their touring drummer and is the session drummer for their fourth album.
  • The Jonas Brothers have admitted to being fans of Busted (which is why they asked James' permission to cover 2 of their songs on their first album, even if they had to rewrite some of the lyrics), so them getting to guest on the 2.0 rerecorded version of 'Year 3000' is no doubt this.
  • in 2023, Ed Sheeran made a guest appearance at one of their concerts and sang 'Who's David' with them after admitting to being a fan of them.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • "What Happened to Your Band?" was originally written by Bourne for a deluxe edition of Son of Dork’s first album that was never commissioned, before being repurposed when the decision was made to release a McBusted album featuring new music, and finally re-recording the song on Busted's fourth album, Halfway There.
  • "Beautiful Mess" uses the exact same rhythm and melody as James Bourne's demo song, "Gone".
• Sequel Gap:
  • Night Driver came out thirteen years after A Present For Everyone due to their disbanding in the intermediate time.
  • "Shipwrecked in Atlantis" is a sequel song to "Air Hostess," released sixteen years apart.
• What Could Have Been: The band could have easily carried on without Charlie if they wanted to. The fact that they decided that without Charlie there was no Busted speaks a lot for how much the other two members valued him being there.
• Working Title: "You Said No" was originally called "Crash and Burn" on their self titled album, but the title was changed due to sensitivity over the Columbia Shuttle disaster, which happened after the album's release but before the single's release. The amended title was also used on the re-release.

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