# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**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, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/41 "2010-11-05T16:27:06Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > No doubt it was the journey backwards through time that changed the meaning of the phrase into its opposite. :rolleyes: Why the rolleyes? What I meant was that they might have heard a live performance, or a recording session tape. (Recording for _Are You Experienced?_ began in 1966.) Highly unlikely I suppose, but entirely consistent with the laws of physics. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/42 "2010-11-05T16:48:45Z")
Englebert Humperdinck took his name from the [German composer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engelbert_Humperdinck) of the same name. Gilbert O’Sullivan (born Raymond O’Sullivan) was named, obviously, as a play on the musical play duo of Gilbert & Sullivan. ---
**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, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/43 "2010-11-05T17:02:23Z")
The Sweethearts of the Rodeo, a popular country music duo, named themselves after an album by the Byrds. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/44 "2010-11-05T18:17:37Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Wow, I just came in to mention Eric’s Trip…I thought I was about the only Doper who knew about them. > > Cocteau Twins took their name from a song by Simple Minds. Neat! Now we’re the two Dopers who know about them. (Somehow I doubt this thread will get too many people to start listening…) (other bands) I’d read before that Slowdive (forerunner to the Mojave 3) was named after the Siouxsie and the Banshees song, but looking it up on Wikipedia seems to show that the name comes from a dream the lead had. Since the thread is pretty much getting derailed to include any artist/band’s name based on/influenced by any other artist, I have to bring up one which I found awfully amusing in the early 1990s; there was a band from Olympia, WA, named “Courtney Love” (which recorded for Sub Pop and other labels) to mock/honor fellow Olympian Courtney Love, who was at the time an up-and-coming scenester and future wife of Kurt Cobain. You can imagine the problems this caused when Love briefly became a popular indie rocker in her own right. ---
**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, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/45 "2010-11-05T18:29:28Z")
So, how does Big Country and Bad Company factor into all of this? ---
**Author:** ![Kilmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kilmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilmore)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/46 "2010-11-05T19:58:24Z")
In a subversion of the thread, Iron Maiden named a song “Fates Warning” after the band Fates Warning had already put out several albums. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/47 "2010-11-05T20:20:42Z")
The Dutch Metal band “[Epica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epica_(band))” took their name from the Kamelot album of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/48 "2010-11-05T23:26:28Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > 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. Except for the fact that they actually called themselves the Dixie Chickens when they first started out… ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/49 "2010-11-06T14:30:08Z")
Just a guess but I think that the (Norweigan ?) band Ah Ha named themselves after a part of the lyrics in an Abba song “Knowing me , Knowing you”. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/50 "2010-11-06T14:36:56Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > 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). The Nazareth in question is Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where Martin Guitars are made. Named, certainly, for the more famous ‘Nazareth’, hometown of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. [Wiki citation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weight). ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499/51 "2010-11-06T15:39:51Z")
Shakespeare’s Sister was named for a Smith’s song Oceansize was named from Jane’s Addiction song. Sisters of Mercy after a Leonard Cohen song. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-that-took-their-name-from-songs-of-other-unrelated-artists/559499.md?page=2)