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How famous bands got their names


Phil O'Keefe

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well, this is obviously incorrect..."1970s rock owes much to Grand Funk. They paved the way for Jefferson Airplane..." JA were around long before GFR...I realize this was suppose to be some kind of transportation-tech tongue-in- cheek comment, but...major fail.

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well' date=' this is obviously incorrect..."1970s rock owes much to Grand Funk. They paved the way for Jefferson Airplane..." JA were around long before GFR...I realize this was suppose to be some kind of transportation-tech tongue-in- cheek comment, but...major fail.[/quote']

 

I wondered if anyone else would catch that... :lol: You're right - Jefferson Airplane was around long before Grand Funk had their first hit.

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When I knew Grand Funk, they were Terry Knight and the Pack. I think Terry went on to produce them.

 

I wanted to name a band "They're Back" or "Back By Popular Demand" because I thought the newspaper ads would draw audience. But that was back when they used to advertise bands in the club's newspaper ads.

 

I also read that the record company released The Reflections record as "Guess Who?" in order to build mystery (like it was members of or another famous band), and it stuck. Then I also read that the Who and the Guess Who had to learn a few of each others songs because the fans asked for them in concert.

 

I don't know if it's true or not, but I read that Buffalo Springfield was names after a piece of construction machinery. The record company asked what their name was, they looked out the window, saw the gear being trucked along the road, and said "Buffalo Springfield".

 

I also know there are 3 phases to naming a band:

 

1) Everybody gives their best and "artiest" name in the first round. Of course, each member wants his/her own name to succeed and thus rejects all the others. So everybody gets rejected,

 

2) Second round: Everyone didn't like their most serious name being rejected in the first round, so they offer a silly name that they really don't like but won't feel bad about being rejected. As predicted, they all get rejected.

 

3) Last round: Someone presents a 'dark horse' candidate that nobody really likes, but nobody really hates and they settle on that one.

 

Notes

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The group's name was taken from the side of a steamroller made by the Springfield, Ohio-based Buffalo-Springfield Roller Company, that had been parked on the street outside Friedman's house where Stills and Furay were staying at the time. The new group debuted on April 11, 1966, at The Troubadour in Hollywood.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Springfield

 

It's in Wikipedia, so I guess it MUST be true! ;)

 

 

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I also know there are 3 phases to naming a band:

 

1) Everybody gives their best and "artiest" name in the first round. Of course, each member wants his/her own name to succeed and thus rejects all the others. So everybody gets rejected,

 

2) Second round: Everyone didn't like their most serious name being rejected in the first round, so they offer a silly name that they really don't like but won't feel bad about being rejected. As predicted, they all get rejected.

 

3) Last round: Someone presents a 'dark horse' candidate that nobody really likes, but nobody really hates and they settle on that one.

 

Notes

 

 

So true! I've been on that merry go round a few times myself! :lol:

 

 

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When I knew Grand Funk, they were Terry Knight and the Pack. I think Terry went on to produce them.

 

I wanted to name a band "They're Back" or "Back By Popular Demand" because I thought the newspaper ads would draw audience. But that was back when they used to advertise bands in the club's newspaper ads.

 

I also read that the record company released The Reflections record as "Guess Who?" in order to build mystery (like it was members of or another famous band), and it stuck. Then I also read that the Who and the Guess Who had to learn a few of each others songs because the fans asked for them in concert.

 

I don't know if it's true or not, but I read that Buffalo Springfield was names after a piece of construction machinery. The record company asked what their name was, they looked out the window, saw the gear being trucked along the road, and said "Buffalo Springfield".

 

I also know there are 3 phases to naming a band:

 

1) Everybody gives their best and "artiest" name in the first round. Of course, each member wants his/her own name to succeed and thus rejects all the others. So everybody gets rejected,

 

2) Second round: Everyone didn't like their most serious name being rejected in the first round, so they offer a silly name that they really don't like but won't feel bad about being rejected. As predicted, they all get rejected.

 

3) Last round: Someone presents a 'dark horse' candidate that nobody really likes, but nobody really hates and they settle on that one.

 

Notes

The most democratic method of choosing a band name. Make a list of every name everyone in the band has suggested. Each band member rates them from 1 to however many suggestions there are. Then add up the ratings of each possible band name. The one with the highest score wins.

 

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Pretty fun read. A few I knew and some I didn't.

 

Here are couple others...

 

REO Seedwagon, which are from my stomping grounds... University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign got their name from an old truck. Back in the day rumor was it was an Oldsmobile station wagon they drove to gigs with, but I think the accurate version is one of the original members of the band studying transportation at the U of I read about an old truck by that name in a book.

 

Cheap Trick: There's a rumor they got their name from a ouija board, but that rumor was probably started to sound interesting. One of my good gal pals in one of Robin Zander's cousins. She said they got their name during a conversation between Rick Nielsen and another member, either Tom or Robin... can't remember at the moment. They were watching a band and one of them commented the band was using a lot of cheap tricks or every cheap trick in the book... something to that effect. I met her in Urbana when she was a college student there as well, but she's from Rockford and a lot younger than Robin.

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