Conversely, just because you haven’t heard of them, doesn’t mean they weren’t big.
At least big in Japan!
And just because they are unheard of in the U.S. doesn’t mean they aren’t big elsewhere, either. I believe that @Pardel-Lux lives in Europe.
Agreed. Watching Jeopardy! with categories like “musical acts newer than 2010” has taught me that. But I have heard of many of them, and big is not a realistic descriptor.
Maybe we need to define what “make it big” really means. Top ten hit? More than one top ten hit? Radio play? Being on the cover of Rolling Stone? Your mom has heard of them?
I don’t think we need to do that. Just let people post their funny band names, and don’t worry about policing which ones are “big” enough to count.
The Beatles. It doesn’t seem strange at all nowadays.
You forgot the ümlauts.
How big do you want them?
Strawberry Alarm Clock, Lemon Piper Band, Velvet Underground, Led Zepelin, Def Leppard, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Lynard Skynard, The Doors.
The sixties were rife with them.
Remember that Oingo Boingo started as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo!
? and the Mysterians
Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis
Hoobastank
That’s what I came in to say. Imagine you’re an American DJ in 1963 who wants to introduce the “Love Me Do” single on the air but you’ve never heard the band’s name spoken aloud nor read anything about the origin of the name. How do you pronounce it? “Beetles”? “Beatless”? “Beat Les”? “Be at Les”? “Be Attles”?
Sun O)))
(Someone really needs to start an all-Jewish Sun O))) cover band called (((Sun O))).)
Blue Öyster Cult has performed over the years using their earlier name “Soft White White Underbelly” which is just as strange a name, if not more so.
Based on your definition of “big”…Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs aren’t the next Beatles but have definitely achieved reasonably well known indie band status in the UK
Let’s Eat Grandma
Prefab Sprout
Limp Bizkit. Dexys Midnight Runners. Plastic Bertrand. Spandau Ballet. There’s an endless supply of strange band names.
But the strangest? The Police. Back when they hit it big, I remember thinking you couldn’t think of less cool name for a band than that. Which made it slightly cool.
Like their drummer’s brother’s record label, I.R.S. (This is not a coincidence. All goes back to how their dad worked for the C.I.A.)
Eric Idle, who came up with the name, was in LA on the freeway one day listening to the local FM alt station when the DJ came on and announced the name.
Idle about had an apopleptic fit and almost drove off the road.
