Artists Real Names and Interesting Facts Quiz

Answer: Charles Hardin Holley

Charles was nicknamed Buddy by his family from an early age. The Decca Company, with whom Buddy signed his first recording contract, printed his surname as Holly instead of Holley. For the sake of convenience, Buddy adopted that as his surname. In 1957 Buddy Holly and the Crickets released "The Chirping Crickets", the only album released during his lifetime.

Answer: Harry Rodger Webb

Cliff Richard was born in Lucknow, India. He chose the name Cliff because of the dubious reference to rocks, meaning Rock and Roll and Richard because of Little Richard. With The Shadows he achieved 14 UK number 1 hits, 67 Top Ten, and 130 of his singles, albums and EPs have charted in the UK Top Twenty.

Answer: William Michael Albert Broad

While at school his teacher referred to him as being idle in one of her reports. He was proud to change the word to Idol instead of Idle because it has a more interesting meaning. He first played guitar with the band Chelsea and then with Generation X. He moved to America as a solo artist and became popular on MTV.

Answer: John Simon Richie

John was given the name Sid Vicious by some friends from school after he was bitten by a hamster named Sid. When Glen Matlock was thrown out of the Sex Pistols, supposedly because he liked the Beatles, he was replaced by Sid Vicious on bass guitar. In 1978 Sid was accused of murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, but was never tried for the crime. In 1979 he died of a drug overdose.

Answer: Robert Thomas Velline

Fifteen year old Bobby Vee, a shortened version of his birth name, formed the group The Shadows, which included his older brother. He and his band filled in for Buddy Holly in Moorhead, Minnesota, where Holly was flying for his next show when his plane crashed.

The performance was a success, and Bobby changed the name of his band to The Strangers upon learning of Cliff Richards backing group The Shadows.

Answer: Paul Francis Gadd

Paul Gadd began his career as Paul Raven, and in 1961 he recorded two singles with the Beatles producer George Martin under that name. Glam rock became popular in 1971 and he changed his name to Garry Glitter. Other names he considered using were Terry Tinsel, Stanley Sparkle, and Vicky Vomit.

Answer: Arnold George Dorsey

Engelbert was born in Chennai, India in 1936. He adopted the name of a German composer to use as his stage name because of its eye catching oddness. Humperdinck was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989, and won a Golden Globe Award as entertainer of the year. He also represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 with the song "Love Will set You Free".

Answer: Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien

Dusty was a tomboy earned the name Dusty from playing football in the streets with the boys. Dusty adopted the name Springfield after having joined her brother, later known as Tom Springfield, and Reshad Feild to form the Springfields, a folk-pop vocal trio.

They had early success with the song "Silver Threads and Golden Needles". Dusty went solo in late 1963 when British artists became the in-thing after the Beatles and various other artists became popular.

Answer: Stevland Hardaway Morris

Stevie's first number 1 on the hit parade was "Fingertips" (1962) when he was only 13 years old, which made him the youngest artist to achieve this feat to date. He was given the name Little Stevie Wonder when he signed with Motown's Tamla Records at the age of eleven because at that age he was such a wonder.

Answer: Donovan Phillips Leitch

His most well known songs are "Sunshine Superman" (1966), "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (1968), and "Mellow Yellow" (1967). Donovan had many high profile music friends, including Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and John Lennon, to whom he taught his finger plucking guitar playing style which John used extensively.