# Bands that took their name from songs of other unrelated artists **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 4, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499 "2010-11-04T19:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/21 "2010-11-05T00:11:30Z")
Who can tell? (yeah, i meant Girls :)) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/22 "2010-11-05T00:21:09Z")
Bill Wyman’s one-off band Willie and the Poor Boys took their name from a Credence Clearwater Revival song, “Willy and the Poor Boys.” Duran Duran took their name from a comic book panel sound effect in Barbarella. Too bad about the wrong Burroughs; I was about to gain a new respect for Dejah Thoris! ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/23 "2010-11-05T01:17:36Z")
[The Old 97’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_97%27s) take their name from Johnny Cash’s “[Wreck of the Old '97](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWasT7HK_KY).” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/24 "2010-11-05T01:46:36Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Bill Wyman’s one-off band Willie and the Poor Boys took their name from a Credence Clearwater Revival song, “Willy and the Poor Boys.” Correction: The song was “Down On the Corner.” Willy and the Poor Boys was, IIRC, the name of the CCR album. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/25 "2010-11-05T02:01:31Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Correction: The song was “Down On the Corner.” Willy and the Poor Boys was, IIRC, the name of the CCR album. If we’re counting album titles, there was a Canadian band called The Sweet Homewreckers, who took their name from Thrush Hermits’ first album title. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/26 "2010-11-05T02:34:10Z")
Judas Priest take their name from Dylan’s “Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest”. Dream Evil are named after a Dio song. Between The Buried And Me are named for a lyric in a Counting Crows song, I can’t remember which off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/27 "2010-11-05T02:44:19Z")
NZ/Australian band [Mi-Sex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-Sex) took their name from the Ultravox! track [My Sex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sex_%28song%29). Australian band [Powderfinger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powderfinger) took their name from the [Neil Young song](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powderfinger_%28song%29). ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/28 "2010-11-05T05:25:09Z")
Back in the 1980s, there was a rock band called Steel Breeze, which took its name from a line in Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/29 "2010-11-05T05:36:06Z")
Girl in a Coma, after the Smiths song “Girlfriend in a Coma” ---
**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/30 "2010-11-05T10:08:48Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Judas Priest take their name from Dylan’s “Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest”. Dream Evil are named after a Dio song. Between The Buried And Me are named for a lyric in a Counting Crows song, I can’t remember which off the top of my head. “Ghost Train”. (“Took the cannonball down to the ocean/Across the desert from the sea to shining sea/I rode a ladder that climbed across the nation/Fifty million feet of earth between the buried and me”.) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/31 "2010-11-05T12:33:49Z")
When a band’s name is a common word or phrase (or a minor variant of a common word or phrase), I really do not think it is justifiable to assume that they took their name from a song that just happens to include that same common word or phrase. Frankly, even if a band member is known to have claimed that they took their name from a certain song, skepticism is probably still justified. Musicians, notoriously, often talk bullshit in interviews, especially if it is the sort of question like “How did you come up with the name for your band?” that they have probably been asked a thousand times before. I find it very hard to believe, for instance, that the fact that the word “Nazareth” is used in passing in the song “The Weight” influenced the band in question more than the fact, which they surely knew, that Nazareth is a heavily culturally loaded name, being well known as the “home town” of Jesus (which is presumably how it got into the song in the first place). Likewise, the suggestion that the _Dixie Chicks_ took their name from the _Little Feat_ album “Dixie Chicken.” I suppose the facts that they are from the region long known as Dixie, that they perform a style of music associated with that region, and that they are, you know, quite attractive women (or “chicks” in commonplace American slang) had nothing to do with their choice at all. And, of course, nobody ever heard the phrase “simple minds” before David Bowie used it in “The Jean Genie.” I could go on … I have, however, heard that the band _The The_ took their name from Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” whose lyrics include the word “the.” (Maybe it was in Wikipedia, in which case it must be true.) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/32 "2010-11-05T12:57:56Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > … > > I find it very hard to believe, for instance, that the fact that the word “Nazareth” is used in passing in the song “The Weight” influenced the band in question more than the fact, which they surely knew, that Nazareth is a heavily culturally loaded name, being well known as the “home town” of Jesus (which is presumably how it got into the song in the first place). > … No. I’ve known this fact for some time now. Years and years ago I heard - or perhaps read - an interview with Dan McCafferty stating that in fact the name did come to him from listening to The Band’s song. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/33 "2010-11-05T13:00:28Z")
I wouldn’t post it except the MP3 player came up with them now: U.S. Royalty. Most likely they were named for the Kennedys, but U.S. Royalty is also mentioned in a Saves the Day song, which isn’t completely a different genre from the band. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/34 "2010-11-05T13:10:09Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > No. I’ve known this fact for some time now. Years and years ago I heard - or perhaps read - an interview with Dan McCafferty stating that in fact the name did come to him from listening to The Band’s song. Yeah, but I would phrase it as the song made them think of the name, rather than they named themselves after that bit in the song. “I named my daughter Edith after Edith Piaf” is not quite the same as “I named my daughter Edith because I happened to hear Edith Piaf mentioned while I was looking for baby names and I liked it”. The first one is an Edith Piaf fan, the second one isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/35 "2010-11-05T13:13:17Z")
The Beatles got the idea for their name as a homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/36 "2010-11-05T13:46:56Z")
I assume that John Wesley Harding (real name: Wesley Stace) got his stage name from the album/song by Bob Dylan. (The actual person about whom the song was written was named John Wesley Hardin – no “g”.) This one doesn’t involve a song, but Pink Floyd was named after two bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/37 "2010-11-05T13:53:45Z")
Arnold George Dorsey took his stage name from German composer Engelbert Humperdinck. Singer Philip Blondheim took the name Scott Mackenzie to record “San Francisco (Flowers in Your Hair).” The last name was inspired by the middle name of friend John Phillips’s daughter Laura Mackenzie Phillips, who would later star on “One Day At a Time.” ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/38 "2010-11-05T13:58:36Z")
OK, this is a really obscure one. The Red Krayola’s album _The Parable of Arable Land_ is credited to “The Red Krayola with The Familiar Ugly”. The Familiar Ugly was a group of about fifty friends of the band, who provided the “Free-Form Freak-Outs” between the songs. My theory about the name of The Familiar Ugly was that it was a reaction to the first two recognizable words of the Jimi Hendrix Experience song “Third Stone from the Sun”: “Strange beautiful.” The only problem with this is that the Experience’s first album apparently came out **after** _The Parable of Arable Land._ So… probably just one of those odd coincidences, unless they somehow heard the song prior to its release. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/39 "2010-11-05T14:12:31Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Duran Duran took their name from a comic book panel sound effect in Barbarella. I believe it was actually the name of the villian in the Barbarella film: Dr. Durand Durand. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/40 "2010-11-05T15:56:21Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > OK, this is a really obscure one. The Red Krayola’s album _The Parable of Arable Land_ is credited to “The Red Krayola with The Familiar Ugly”. The Familiar Ugly was a group of about fifty friends of the band, who provided the “Free-Form Freak-Outs” between the songs. > > My theory about the name of The Familiar Ugly was that it was a reaction to the first two recognizable words of the Jimi Hendrix Experience song “Third Stone from the Sun”: “Strange beautiful.” The only problem with this is that the Experience’s first album apparently came out **after** _The Parable of Arable Land._ So… probably just one of those odd coincidences, unless they somehow heard the song prior to its release. No doubt it was the journey backwards through time that changed the meaning of the phrase into its opposite. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499.md?page=3)