**Stock Aitken Waterman ** were big in the UK, but were they considered a “band”?
I would say they are considered record producers who specialised in churning out an endless stream of disposable, synthetic, manufactured pop. However a check on Wiki reminds me they did release a few tracks themselves with Stock Aitken & Waterman as the credited artist so I say they count.
TCMF-2L
On the flip side Accept lead singer Udo Dirkschneider left to form U.D.O.
Dokken was mentioned. Very on topic there was tension in the band because guitarist George Lynch publicly complained that a band should not be named after one member.
Robert Plant once derided Coverdale/Page as “Cover-version Page”.
Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi put out an album with guest musicians titled “Iommi” but don’t think the project ever toured so this might not count.
There is also the sub-category of bands that sound like they are named after someone in it, but are not. There is no one in Sleater-Kinney named Sleater or Kinney; rather its named after a road.
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Today I learned that “Don Was” is a stage name. I thought that was his real name…
Personally I don’t think the issue is whether David and Don Was are their real names. The fact is no one in the band was claining ‘Not’ as a surname so Was (Not Was) isn’t a fit for the brief.
TCMF-2L
Ha, not surprised that these band names could rub people the wrong way - the “surname only” thing is so next-level arrogant that it becomes kind of fascinating. (gotta admire the confidence)
I’m not sure why folks are characterizing this as egotistical. It seems a rather practical and natural way to identify a group, especially a duo. On the other hand, the concept of taking a small group of two-to-five musicians and giving them some kind of conceptual name seems to be no less grandiose.
DeBarge.
In my opinion- one thing is it instantly marginalizes everyone else in the band who doesn’t have that name. And on top of it, they use a name style usually reserved for someone like Bach or Beethoven.
Not that it can’t be cool anyway in the right hands.
There was Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve, featuring (future) Van Halen’s Sammy Hagar, Neal Schon of Journey, and a couple of guys whose names are rumored to be Aaronson and Schrieve.
Gowan
I haven’t seen Schon and Hammer mentioned. Neal Schon and Jan Hammer (of Miami Vice fame.)
Just thought of Bourgeois Tagg
Shakes fist!
Gowan who would probably be long forgotten but he has gone on to vocal duties with Styx.
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard anything by Styx (old or new) in a very, very long time.
They put out an album in 2017 called The Mission.
Simon and Garfunkel counts and Hall and Oates counts. But Garfunkel and Oates does not.
Yeah. Except Dokken is such a perfect heavy metal surname! Now if the band was named after him and his name was “Lipschitz”, the guitarist might have an argument!
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Also Giles, Giles & Fripp, consisting of Michael Giles, Peter Giles and Robert Fripp.
If you don’t listen to the adult album alternative station in Nashville, there’s only a minute chance you heard the Kopecky Family Band’s “Heartbeat.” As you might guess by the fact that I’m posting in this thread about them, they later changed their name to just Kopecky. (There’s only one Kopecky in the band – frontwoman Kelsey.)
One of the bands Kopecky opened for was Gomez. (Remember all those Philips commercials that ended with a weak cover of “Getting Better?” That was them!) Unfortunately, Gomez is just a friend of the band, not a member.
I love this post.