The Beatles Bible - Topic: The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/ Simple:Press Version 5.2.6 AliJaggerMcCartney on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47549 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47549 meanmistermustard said:

The Who is a great name.

Same here, I also think Led Zeppelin and The Doors are brilliant names.

a-hard-days-night-george-9

]]> Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:35:03 +0000 minime on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47521 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47521 Should they have chosen "salt and pepper lonely hearts club band" as their name, I doubt they would have become so popular. A band name's must be short enough for people to memorize it on first hearing. But other than that, I don't think Beatles's name really contributed to its popularity.

]]> Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:59:33 +0000 Rat Salad on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47498 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47498 The Who -- one of my favorite bands from "Happy Jack" and earlier -- certainly has a "neutral" name!  Unfortunately, it's completely devoid of meaning. But here's a good example of purely meaningless name associated with a great body of work and popularity. Except in the extremes, it probably doesn't matter what the name is, and that was my thought.

]]> Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:17:19 +0000 meanmistermustard on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47496 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47496 The Who is a great name.

]]> Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:12:12 +0000 Rat Salad on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47486 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47486 What if we named bands serially, like "Band #687," and later "Band #2056"?  This would be a Soviet way of naming them as they named the hotels in the Eastern Bloc back in the day. No need for a marketing department although the cost of promotion might continue in some strange way.

You want to suggest something in a band's name but not too much, and you don't want to unnecessarily offend anyone. "The Beatles" was originally a very silly name as I recall but at least was only one, sort-of-clever word; it didn't contain a lot of semantic information. It was ...]]> Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:13:49 +0000 MeanMrsMustard on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47299 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47299 But... But...
If they hadn't been the Beatles, we wouldn't be on the Beatles Bible! Which is a cool name!

]]> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:44:29 +0000 Joe on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47261 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47261 Von - of course I'm thinking retroactively. It's very hard to put yourself in the mindset of someone in the 1960s hearing The Beatles, but them not being called The Beatles and having a terrible name. Part of me thinks it wouldn't have made a difference, but predicting what'll be popular is incredibly difficult.

]]> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:56:38 +0000 meanmistermustard on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47249 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47249 At the time the beatles was a strange name, hence all the questions at the time of why the name 'beatles' and who came up with it. At least the Crickets (which helped inspire the name Beatles) had some relation to music but who had heard of a musical beetle? You had to see the name to see the 'beat' part but to just here the names 'The Beatles' must have left people a little lost.

In relation to the question set, I think their music, their humour and their personalities would still have won over the fans and press. Unless ...]]> Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:23:07 +0000 vonbontee on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47242 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47242 Are you sure you're not thinking retroactively, Joe? It sounds terrible today, but i would imagine that "Herman's Hermits" seemed like a fairly innovative band name at the time - although self-defeating, since there was no actual Herman in the band.

]]> Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:24:57 +0000 Joe on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47214 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47214 Perhaps, but it depends on what they'd have chosen. There are plenty of terrible band names around (Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins) which you tend not to question because they sound memorable and the songs overshadow the name. So if The Beatles had another catchy yet fairly neutral name that people could remember, and still had the songs, image and humour, they'd have done just fine.

Not if they were called Herman's Hermits though - some names stand out as being utterly dismal, and it's hard to take the band seriously regardless of their output. We'd still have the music but they ...]]> Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:23:00 +0000 Rat Salad on The Beatles, The John Paul Quartet, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Four -- What's in a name? http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47188 Recording and musicology http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/recording-and-musicology/the-beatles-the-john-paul-quartet-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-the-fab-four-whats-in-a-name/#p47188 I've long thought a band's name doesn't matter in terms of their success. Stupid names are successful, great names fail.

If the Beatles had another name, would they have been as successful?

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