10 Iconic Bands That Made The Right Choice By Changing Their Names Early On
Shakespeare may have been on to something when he said that a rose by any other name would have probs smelled as sweet, but who's to say these legends of music would've gone on to do the things they did if they hadn't renamed themselves to what we know them by today?
After horrible feedback from reviled women everywhere, this crew ditched the pedophilia-sounding "Naked Toddler." Luckily they landed on something more palatable, like "Creed."
After member Anthony "Krayzie Bone" Henderson crashed his moped, his posse came to school with bandages on in solidarity, and thus, the "Band Aid Boys" were born. Then, the talented Cleveland rap group realized band-aids don't really exude a very "hard" persona, and came up with something a little more intimidating: "Bone Thugs-N-Harmony."
When lead singer of the iconic group, Brian Wilson began writing songs about surfing in 1961, he'd hardly even touched a surfboard. So to gain some cred with the surfing community, he called his new group "The Pendeltons" after the popular plaid "surfer" shirts.
Then, in a fairly insolent move, Los Angeles–based independent label Candix Records, who they signed with, changed their name to "The Beach Boys" after the debut of their single "Surfin'." And thank God they did.
More plainly forgettable than anything, "Smile" served as the name for "Queen" before the legendary rock group was the foursome we all came to know and love.
Originally, the band consisted of guitarist, Brian May, drummer, Roger Taylor and bassist Tim Staffell . Soon after their debut record, Staffell quit the band, and was quickly replaced by legend Freddie Mercury. And being Freddie Mercury, he calmly stated that group needed a name change. His suggestion? "Queen."
Originally, the suit-clad alternative rock 90s group's name was inspired by a devout groupie that followed them everywhere, but it wound up sounding like something more suitable for a local botanist's charity.
Not long after though, Adam Levine and company realized the size of the audience they were deterring through a misplaced assumption of their sound - albeit an understandable one - and eventually changed their moniker to "Maroon 5."
It took the exit of original lead singer Les Braunstein and a particularly scathing review of one of their shows to convince band manager Sandy Pearlman that Soft White Underbelly needed a new name.
"Blue Öyster Cult" isn't the greatest name in the world either, but it's a hell of an improvement, all things considered.
While the group was still a trio, leader Maurice White was still "heavily influenced by jazz." We're not sure how that's an acceptable excuse for the name "The Salty Peppers," but we don't know much about jazz, so we'll allow it.
Eventually, after being joined by seven more band members, White looked to his zodiac for inspiration. As a Sagittarius, his elements were earth, airand fire. Thus, "Earth Wind And Fire" was born.
Introduced to each other by psych-rock legend Skip Spence, guitarist Tom Johnston and drummer John Hartman formed Pud in San Jose.
After being joined by the other "Doobs," the iconic rock group decided to change their name from a childish penis reference to a slightly-less-childish weed reference.
Given the fact that Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt started playing shows when they were just 14 years old, the odd moniker isn't completely ridiculous.
In any case, the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame group grew up and landed on the far better name, "Green Day."
"That's was how we wanted to play, majestic and chaotic," explained lead singer Anthony Kiedis of their unspeakably long, hilariously contrived initial name.
Soon, the world renown rock group saw the truth in the old adage "just because you can, doesn't mean you should," and eventually switched to "Red Hot Chili Peppers."