# Bands with slightly different names depending on where on the planet you are standing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635 "2025-08-02T22:56:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/61 "2025-08-06T00:38:57Z")
I remember when they were Len Zefflin [![](https://musictoeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/lenzefflin.jpg) ](https://musictoeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/lenzefflin.jpg) ---
**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:** [August 6, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/62 "2025-08-06T01:02:00Z")
I think [Jethro Toe](https://images.app.goo.gl/fvrD5VjBRABkCBz86) were playing about that time too. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/63 "2025-08-06T03:02:08Z")
The American R&B band Commodores and the German hard rock band Scorpions do not lead their band names off with the definite article. That’s never stopped most of the public from referring to them as “The Commodores” and “The Scorpions”. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/64 "2025-08-06T07:45:36Z")
When they appeared on the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks, Nine Inch Nails were introduced as _THE_ Nine Inch Nails - although that was probably just a bit of David Lynch weirdness: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3dJFUIYpH2A/maxresdefault.jpg "Twin Peaks: The Return (Nine Inch Nails - She's Gone Away)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dJFUIYpH2A) ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/65 "2025-08-06T08:27:11Z")
Wham! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YD4FUYq8WlU/maxresdefault.jpg "Deadpool WHAM!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD4FUYq8WlU) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/66 "2025-08-06T13:09:06Z")
That reminds me of something that drove me crazy in the movie _Titanic_ . Some characters , maybe all , didn’t use “the” and said things like > The pumps buy you time, but minutes only. From this moment, no matter what we do, Titanic will founder. as if Titanic was the name of a person or animal. Aside from the movie, I almost always see/hear _the_ Titanic just like I always see/hear _the_ Spirit of St Louis even though “the” isn’t part of the name. Only exceptions can think of are Air Force One and Two - and those aren’t really the name of a particular plane. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/67 "2025-08-06T15:10:37Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Some characters , maybe all , didn’t use “the” and said things like > > > The pumps buy you time, but minutes only. From this moment, no matter what we do, Titanic will founder. > > as if Titanic was the name of a person or animal. That is very much standard Brit English. If the characters saying that are Brits that’d be realistic. If the screenwriters had Americans talking like that, it’d be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/68 "2025-08-06T15:24:29Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@doreen](#): > > > > as if Titanic was the name of a person or animal. > > That is very much standard Brit English. If the characters saying that are Brits that’d be realistic. If the screenwriters had Americans talking like that, it’d be wrong. Is it only Brit? Ships are often anthromorphically given female names and referred to as ‘she’ in both dialects, I think? Maybe a bit more often in the UK… ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/69 "2025-08-06T15:48:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If the screenwriters had Americans talking like that, it’d be wrong. At least one was American ( Bill Paxton’s character) - I would have assumed it was just a dialect difference if it was only Brits. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/70 "2025-08-06T16:02:41Z")
Same with Talking Heads. They even had an album titled “The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads” but people still got it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/71 "2025-08-06T16:35:25Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Same with Talking Heads. They even had an album titled “The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads” but people still got it wrong. I’m sure there are many more like this. Always interesting to turn up examples. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/72 "2025-08-07T01:18:16Z")
The classic occurence of this is a band I got to see this summer: The Beat… who (me being a Bloody Colonist™), I only knew as The English Beat. eta: THREE of us posted that factoid. Sorry… but in my defense, the thread stopped loading after the first couple posts, and I assumed it was a short thread. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/73 "2025-08-07T02:20:56Z")
I’m not a fan of the band, but I think I would have assumed the band was _Yes!_ and not _Yes_ though I don’t really know why. Maybe just mixing it up with Wham! Another band with an exclamation mark is Judo CHOP! (The CHOP seems to always be capitalized). Aussie melodic punk. I’ve definitely heard _Deftones_ being called _The Deftones_ and _Descendents_ called _The Descendents_. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/74 "2025-08-07T02:30:53Z")
Not one, not two, but _ **three** _ exclamation marks: [Tony! Toni! Toné!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony!_Toni!_Ton%25C3%25A9!) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/75 "2025-08-07T03:14:01Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Interestingly, the band Yes also seems to be on the bill, as “Yes!” with an exclamation mark. Was this their original moniker? Speaking as a longtime Yes fan: not as far as I know. They evolved out of a band called Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, and when several of them decided that that band was finished, they decided to come up with a new name; Peter Banks suggested “Yes” (no punctuation mark) as a temporary name, and they never switched away from it. In being a fan of the group for 40+ years, I’ve never seen anything suggesting that they ever went by “Yes!” I suspect that the maker of that poster decided to add the exclamation point on their own, for whatever reason. By the time of that 1969 festival, Yes (under that name) had been in existence for a little over a year, and had just released their first album – note the lack of an exclamation point on the cover: [![](https://i.discogs.com/Lo5iGjySLIdK1YaKL_2AGFofX7ah_ZMWmy1HFNISJ3E/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ2Mjg3/ODMtMTM3MDQ0NTE1/MC03MjY2LmpwZWc.jpeg) ](https://i.discogs.com/Lo5iGjySLIdK1YaKL_2AGFofX7ah_ZMWmy1HFNISJ3E/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ2Mjg3/ODMtMTM3MDQ0NTE1/MC03MjY2LmpwZWc.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/76 "2025-08-07T03:15:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If the screenwriters had Americans talking like that, it’d be wrong. In 1912, and among the pretentious elite, I’m not so sure it would be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/77 "2025-08-07T13:30:59Z")
Good point. Aping the Brit upper crust would certainly have been common to at least some subset of the USA upper crust. I had not thought of that. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635/78 "2025-08-11T18:37:41Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > I’m not a fan of the band, but I think I would have assumed the band was _Yes!_ and not _Yes_ though I don’t really know why. Maybe just mixing it up with Wham! > > Another band with an exclamation mark is Judo CHOP! (The CHOP seems to always be capitalized). Aussie melodic punk. > > I’ve definitely heard _Deftones_ being called _The Deftones_ and _Descendents_ called _The Descendents_. DingDingDingDing !! My favorite band. By a long shot. Since I was…11? Thank you, Kenobi\_65 for articulating much of what my link confirms. Founder and lead singer for quite a few decades Jon Anderson on [Why Yes is called Yes and not The Yes](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dWxrRoJr-pQ). It’s never been referred to, from 1968 moving forward, as “Yes!” You must’ve mistaken it. Ditto on the whole “Talking Heads” thing. They did name the damned album to educate the teeming masses. Didn’t help. People routinely talk about The Talking Heads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-slightly-different-names-depending-on-where-on-the-planet-you-are-standing/1021635.md?page=3)