The Origins of 10 Band Names: Song Titles

Where do band names come from? All over the place. Here, there, and everywhere. There are articles and books and blogposts all about them. 

I know without conferring with any robots that:

• They Might Be Giants was the name of a movie in the 1970's
• 10,000 Maniacs also came from an old movie, except that it was called 2,000 Maniacs
• Steely Dan was the name of a dildo
• Duran Duran was the bad guy in Barbarella
• Grateful Dead was just something they saw in a dictionary, so said Jerry
• ABBA is the first letter of the band members' names
• Husker Du was a Scandinavian board game
• I told you 'bout Skynyrd
• 10cc and The Lovin' Spoonful are supposedly the measurement of and slang for average ejaculate
• R.E.M. -- another dictionary find!

And that's just what I can think of, there are thousands more tidbits... of what my dad calls "useless information that Whitney knows."

But... today we are here to listen to songs that inspired band names!

One of my faves...

DC locals!

Sometimes you add an "s"...

Sometimes you subtract an "s"...

Pretty cool.

And this post's origin story is that I just found this one out yesterday! In the film version of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, a trippy, silly thing, there's a Python-affiliated goof group called the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and they sing their song that has had its name grow more popular since the early aughts...

Now ya know. Enjoy!