New Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin
-When the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, guitarist Jimmy Page asked his friend from childhood, John Bonham, to play drums while John Paul Jones came in on bass. Page's initial choice for the vocalist, Terry Reid, was unable to do it so he recommended Robert Plant. The group toured extensively through Scandinavia as "The New Yardbirds" before The Who drummer Keith Moon told them to change their name or else they "would go down like a lead zeppelin"
Mammoth/Van Halen
-Alex and Eddie Van Halen, both brothers born in The Netherlands, started their legendary path to music success in 1972 with Mark Stone on bass in a band called Genesis. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, there was already a band called Genesis. To avoid any clashing with Phil Collins and company, they changed their name to Mammoth. But then, once again, same issue-someone was already using that name. They say third time is the charm. Thankfully, it was. It was singer Dave Lee Roth who suggested using the family name "Van Halen"
L.A. Guns & Hollywood Rose/Guns 'N Roses
-It's not shocking to hear that two bands morph into one. This band formed in 1985 from the ashes of two fallen L.A. bands-Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. Vocalist Axl Rose, drummer Steven Adler and guitarists Izzy Stradlin and Slash were members of Hollywood Rose. While in L.A. Guns, however, the members included guitarist Tracii Guns, bassist Ole Beich, drummer Rob Gardner. Their first show was promoted as Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns presents Guns 'N Roses. Ole Beich was fired and replaced by Duff McKagan. Not long after, Tracii Guns and Rob Gardner were out and Adler and Slash were in
The Jam Band/Aerosmith
-Prior to joining this soon-to-be-legendary band, Steven Tyler had sang in groups during the 1960s. He had even penned a song, called "The Sun", which appeared on a good majority of jukeboxes in the Lake Sunapee area. A family vacation in 1969 to Lake Sunapee led to him meeting Joe Perry, who was working at a lakeside restaurant washing dishes and playing in a group with Tom Hamilton called The Jam Band. Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton moved to Boston, which soon resulted in them meeting Berklee College of Music student Joey Kramer. Kramer had dropped out to pursue music with the two of them. Of course, they would need a singer. Kramer knew of Tyler since 1970. Tyler would join, only on one condition-he would be their frontman, not drummer, although he did have good experience with drums. They all moved into together and considered names like The Hookers or Spike Jones. They decided on Aerosmith. One story says it was after the Harry Nilsson album Aerial Ballet while another story says it was the story Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, but the name changed to reflect a more aeronautical direction. Tyler's childhood friend Ray Tabano came in on guitar, but was soon let go to let in Brad Whitford.
The Silver Beetles/Johnny and the Moondogs/The Quarrymen/The Beatles
-Many names, many faces, one band. This soon-to-be-legendary band first formed as The Quarrymen in 1956, with John Lennon as the founding member. He took the name from Quarry Bank High School. It is said that original member Pete Shotton was said to have named the band. Late in 1957, Paul McCartney joined and not too long after, 14-year-old George Harrison had joined as a recommendation from McCartney. They started out as a skiffle group, which is essentially a type of coffeehouse rock or pop, which was spreading like wildfire all over 1950s-era Britain. They tried out different names, like Johnny and the Moondogs, The Silver Beetles. In 1960, they recruited Pete Best on drums and Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and Sutcliffe named the band The Beatles.
Golden Gate Rhythm Section/Journey
-For one thing, Journey always gets pegged as a chick band because most of the audience is women. After forming in 1973 to serve as a backing band for other Bay Area acts, the band was already on its way to fame. Many of the bands' members were already well known names-Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon had played in Santana, Ross Valory and George Tickner had played in the psychedelic group Frumious Bandersnatch. They even went on the radio to have people choose a name, but a roadie simply suggested Journey
Sigma 6/The Spectrum 5/The Abdabs/The Tea Set/Pink Floyd
-After undergoing numerous name changes and music genre changes, starting out as a blues band, front man Syd Barrett renamed them after Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, two bluesmen. 1963-1965 saw the fledgling group performing as The Abdabs, the Spectrum 5 and Sigma 6. Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright and guitarist Bob Klose did a demo as The Tea Set in 1965, making for the first songs of the band. 1967 saw the release of the first album under the moniker "Pink Floyd". That following year, David Gilmour joined and was the replacement for Syd Barrett
Rainbow/Wicked Lester/Kiss
-You wouldn't think that by looking at this picture that the band featured would go on to be the fire-breathing, blood-spitting, over the top act they are now. You'd think they were just some other band following the massive glam rock craze. Prior to the over-the-top antics, Kiss started as a folk band. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley (still going by their birth names of Gene Klein and Stanley Eisen) formed a band in 1970 called Rainbow. Stanley had changed it to Wicked Lester because their was another band called Rainbow, not to be confused with Ritchie Blackmore's band of the same name. Wicked Lester went down bad, with no success. A new direction was needed. Glam rock roups like Slade, Sweet inspired the fledgling group to start wearing makeup. They hired Peter Criss (born Peter George John Criscoula) on drums and Ace Frehley (born Paul Frehley) on guitar. Since Criss was in a band called Lips, it was decided Kiss would be the name.
Trigger/Foreigner
-This band is known for a high-pitched vocalist and a good majority of love songs. The members of the band that would become Foreigner in 1976 were already talented musicians. Mick Jones, originally from England, was in New York City after the Leslie West Band broke up. He was encouraged by West's manager to form a band. When there, he met Al Greenwood, a keyboardist. They moved on to finding Ian McDonald, who had been in prog rockers King Crimson and Dennis Elliot. After auditioning over 50 singers, Lou Gramm finally won the audition and became the singer. Their lineup was complete once Ed Gagliardi joined on bass. They operated under the name Trigger, but had to change it due to another band using that moniker. They settled on Foreigner because of the vast diversity of the band members
Earth/Black Sabbath
-Geezer Butler, who had been training to be a chartered accountant, had hired former factory worker John Michael Osbourne, aka "Ozzy" Osbourne to be the front man for his group Rare Breed (the English version, not the American version) in 1967. The band broke up after two shows and they asked former Mythology members Tony Iommi and Bill Ward about their idea of forming a band together. Originally they were to be called Earth Blues Company and then shortened it to Earth. Once again, the problem that plagues all bands occurred-there was a band already using that name. So they came together and chose the name "Black Sabbath" after a horror film. In 1968, they formed officially and had their debut album out in 1969
Hadrian/Rush
-Alex Lifeson, Jeff Jones and John Rutsey were teens growing up in Canada. They formed a band called Hadrian in 1968. Jones was replaced by Geddy Lee on bass soon after. They quickly changed their name to Rush. It was not until 1973 when they released a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away". Prior to that, they hadn't released any music. Their first album came out in 1974 and due to the constant pressure of touring, John Rutsey quit and now they needed a drummer. Neil Peart stepped in and the rest is history
One Percent/Lynyrd Skynyrd
-Ronnie Van Zandt and his friends Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns started playing music together as teens in 1964. They probably were flirting with the idea of forming a band. They changed names frequently, going from My Backyard to Noble Five to finally The One Percent in 1968. It wasn't until 1969 when their P.E. teacher, Leonard Skinner told them to change their name, probably because of "the one percent" being a phrase associated with outlaw motorcycle clubs whose members with that patch are the ones who commit crimes. With the band having long hair and the teacher enforcing the "no long hair" rule, they named the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, simply changing the letters
Nazz/Alice Cooper
-When he first started out, "Alice Cooper" was going by his birth name Vincent Furnier. In 1964 he had formed a group called The Spiders. This group included future bandmates Dennis Dunaway and Glen Buxton. Moving from Phoenix to Los Angeles, they named themselves Nazz. They ran into that age old problem with musicians-someone using the name already. In this case, it was mellow rocker Todd Rundgren using the name Nazz for his group in Philadelphia. So they settled on Alice Cooper
Atomic Mass/Def Leppard
-Rick Savage and a school mate, Tony Kenning, formed the band Atomic Mass while in school. Pete Willis joined soon after. Performing mostly covers, as all bands first starting out usually do, Pete Willis met future singer Joe Elliott after seeing him at Atomic Mass' one concert and meeting him at a bus stop. 1977 saw the band changing their name to Def Leppard, thanks to Joe Elliott making up imaginary band names when he was designing posters. Aspiring guitarist Steve Clark auditioned for the band by playing the whole song of "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Tony Kenning left and in came 15 year old Rick Allen on drums. Of course, being that young, he had to have a court-appointed tutor travelling to make sure his education was up to par.
Smile/Queen
-1968 saw the birth of a band called Smile. Brian May was the one to create the band. The first to join was drummer Roger Taylor and soon a classmate of Freddie Mercury's named Tim Staffell joined, completing the band. After landing a contract with Mercury Records and playing at the Royal Albert Hall, Staffell left to join a folk-rock band called Humpy Bong. Freddie Mercury heard they needed a new singer and offered to join, claiming that he could also write songs. Mercury was a fan of the band Smile and he joined the group. In 1971, John Deacon took over on bass and Mercury renamed the band Queen, after his proud support of the British monarchy and the sexual innuendo of the word "queen"
Garden Wall/Genesis
-Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and Chris Stewart were friends who had attended boarding school and formed Garden Wall in 1965. Meanwhile, there was another band out there called Anon, which featured Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips. 1967 saw the breakup of both bands. When bands break up, usually there's some history waiting to be made. And now that history was going to be made. Phillips and Rutherford were still writing, but invited Gabriel, Banks and Stewart to record some music at a friends' homemade studio. 1968 saw the group releasing a song called "The Silent Sun", which had been written in the song style of the Bee Gees. This won over producer Jonathan King. By this point, they had changed their name to Genesis
Psychotic Negatives/Weak Heartdrops/The Clash
-1973 saw Joe Strummer, who was still going by his birth name of John Mellnor, singing for a pub band called the 101'ers. By 1972, Mick Jones, an aspiring guitarist not to be confused with the Foreigner guitarist of the same name, formed a punk group called London SS. The band never even played one show before breaking up. Still wanting to make it in music, Jones called up Paul Simonon, who had auditioned for London SS and failed, and Terry Chimes, who also auditioned for London SS but failed. They came together to form a new band. Jones kept his manager Bernie Rhodes, who had originally brought in Strummer to audition for the band. They went through a succession of changes, but eventually settled on a simple name, a name that sounded punk-The Clash
Roundabout/Deep Purple
-Chris Curtis, who had been playing drums for a band called The Searchers, wanted to form a new group and call it Roundabout. His first recruit was keyboardist Jon Lord, who happened to be Curtis' roommate. Lord was in a band called the Flower Pot Men. When he broke the news that he was leaving to join this new fledgling group, they all suggested Ritchie Blackmore join him. Nick Simper, who was also from the Flower Pot Men, joined them. In 1968, Curtis quit because of his substance abuse issues. The band's manager, Tony Edwards, encouraged the band to continue without Curtis. They recruited drummer Bobby Woodman and moved to a country house in Hertfordshire to audition singers. They settled on Rod Evans and his former band mate Ian Paice replaced Woodman on drums. After touring Denmark and Sweden, they renamed themselves Deep Purple, after an old song.
Strontium 90/The Police
-Stuart Copeland had been touring with Curved Air as the drummer. When Curved Air broke up, he remembered talking to a young aspiring singer going by the name Sting in 1976. They both met up and started talking about forming a band together. In 1977, they released their first single as The Police, a single called "Fall Out". Sting had left to join a band called Strontium 90. Copeland came along and that is where they met guitarist Andy Summers. He was considered a far more talented guitarist than Henry Padovani. Sting and Copeland were hesitant at first, but they quickly warmed to the idea of having a talented guitarist in their midst
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