Rock Band Name Origins: The Stories of 240 Groups and Performers - Softcover

Metzer, Greg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786438185 ISBN 13: 9780786438181

Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2008

Synopsis

This book details the origins of the names of 240 musical acts, focusing on the most popular groups (and a few individual performers) from the 1960s through today. Even casual music fans will recognize almost all of the acts discussed. A few one-hit wonders are included simply because their name is so unusual (Mungo Jerry, for example) that they warrant a place in the study. Each entry focuses on the meaning and/or origin of the act's name, what it had been called previously, and any other names that were considered and rejected during the naming process. Also included are facts and figures about the act's history and place in the rock music pantheon, the year the act was formed, the names of original members and later members of note and the act's best known hit. The book lists bands alphabetically to give the casual reader the opportunity to open it to any page and read at leisure, the historian the ability to easily pinpoint the subject of his or her research, or the die-hard rock fan the chance to learn from A to Z the name origins of the biggest acts in rock and pop music history.

About this title

About the Author:

Attorney Greg Metzer lives in Edmond, Oklahoma.

From Booklist:

Metzer’s entertaining volume answers questions many of us have had for years about popular bands and their names. He goes beyond name origins by also listing the years the bands were formed, original and subsequent members, and each band’s best-known song along with its year and highest ranking on the Billboard chart. Each entry is several paragraphs in length, allowing for more detail than usually found in books or online sources regarding this topic. Also here are appendixes of previous and rejected names of many bands.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0786438185
• ISBN 13: 9780786438181
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256