Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/7-bands-that-changed-their-names-before-signing-a-record-deal/
A band name is usually the first thing a stranger learns about you. It shows up on posters, demo tapes and club listings long before anyone hears a note. Plenty of famous groups started out under names that never made it past the rehearsal room.
Some of these changes were casual, and others were pushed along by practical problems like legal worries or a clash with another act. Here are seven bands that settled on the name we know before their record deals arrived.
The Beatles
The group that became the Beatles began as the Quarrymen in Liverpool in the late 1950s. By 1960 they had tried Johnny and the Moondogs and the Silver Beetles. They shortened it to the Beatles that same year, in time for their long stints in Hamburg.
That version of the name carried them into the studio. They signed with EMI’s Parlophone label in 1962, and their first single, Love Me Do, came out that October. The name stuck for the rest of their career, and the wordplay on beat and beetle gave it a bit of character.
Nirvana
Before Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic settled on Nirvana in 1988, they cycled through a string of names. Fecal Matter, Skid Row, Pen Cap Chew, Bliss and Ted Ed Fred have all been linked to the early lineup. The changing roster and shifting names made the group hard to track in the Washington State scene.
Once they became Nirvana, things moved quickly. Their first single, Love Buzz, was…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-10-29 13:10:00
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