So we’re driving up the NJ Turnpike, as one does sometimes.
A song by the band I’ve always known as “Cream” comes on. I ask my Dearly Beloved™ if she’s ever heard of another name for this band.
She glanced at me with caution but didn’t shove me out the door because I happened to be behind the wheel. Go me.
I asked her because the Brit husband of my dear old pal, who’s got about 7 years on me ( and so is around 70 ) has referred to them as “The Cream”. Without any wink or nod. And, he’s a drummer from wayyyyyy back. He’s got a photo of Charlie Watts with an arm around his shoulder and he’s about 19 if that. So, drummer in the U.K. from the 60’s forward. He’s also been the drummer for Graham Parker and The Rumour.
Anyway. “The Cream” apparently is a thing.
I’m struggling to come up with ANY other band that’s got two “legitimately recognized” names besides the band I’ve mentioned.
Anyone? Or is this a quirk of English opposed to Americanish ?
Yazoo, the English New Wave duo of Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke, was called Yaz in the United States because there was already a band named Yazoo there.
Alabama 3, the group famous for recording “Woke Up This Morning” (AKA The Sopranos Theme), were credited as A3 in the US. This was apparently to avoid confusion with the American country music group Alabama.
My understanding is that the change was mostly because they had named the band Yazoo after the name of an American record company, and when they released music in the U.S. under that name, Yazoo Records sued them. As per that Wikipedia entry:
When Wham!, which was based in the UK, first started releasing music in the U.S., they went by “Wham! U.K.” in the States, as there was already an established band named Wham! in the U.S. Eventually, I guess that there was some sort of settlement or arrangement, and they dropped the “U.K.” portion of the name for later U.S. releases.
Some bands tweak their names to scan better and leaner, like The Pink Floyd Sound. Also they are adjusted to prevent inadvertent duplication such as Squeeze being marketed in Australia as UK Squeeze. Ditto The Beat being the British Beat in some markets.
From what I can see, it seems like they may have initially started out naming themselves “The Cream,” but very quickly just shortened it to “Cream.” The two variations may have gotten used interchangeably in the early days of the band, and fans (like the gentleman you mention) might have clung to calling them “The Cream,” but AFAICT, they never released any records credited to “The Cream.”
It wasn’t official, but here in Canada, Butthole Surfers were called Buttonhole Surfers on MuchMusic, our version of MTV, because they didn’t want to say the real name on air.
