Band Names; What Were They Thinking Quiz

Answer: Barbarella

According to Nick Rhodes, there wasn't really a lot of thought put into it, it was catchy.
Major singles from Duran Duran are The Reflex, Girls on Film and Wild Boys.
The other movies mentioned:
Star Trek II (Wrath of Khan), Villain: Khan Noonien Singh
Flash Gordon, villain: Ming the Merciless
A View to a Kill, Villain: Max Zorin. Detail: Duran Duran did perform the main theme song of this 007 movie.

Answer: Hot Chocolate

Nobody knows what she was thinking when she wrote 'The Hot Chocolate Band' as performing artist. Errol Brown liked it but made it a bit shorter.

The reply on that fax message by the way, was that John Lennon loved the reggea version and the song was indeed released on the Apple label.

Answer: The Crickets

The Crickets were the accompanying band of Buddy Holly. Stuart Sutcliffe, a friend of John Lennon's, proposed a name in the same category, namely The Beetles. John liked the idea but suggested to make it something in line with the kind of music they played. So it started with Long John and The Silver Beatles, it became shorter to The Fabulous Silver Beatles', The Silver Beatles' and finally only The Beatles remained.

Answer: Muddy Waters

"Rollin' Stone" is credited to McKinley Morganfield, the real name of Blues Legend Muddy Waters. The song was based on "Catfish Blues" by blues singer/guitarist Robert Petway. It is said that the Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone" is also influenced by the Muddy Waters Song.

King Cole and Vaughn Monroe both had a hit song in 1948 respectively "Nature Boy" and "Ballerina", but there were no stones in those songs

Answer: Steely Dan

There is also a Austrian band called Naked Lunch, named after the same Burroughs novel. Quite popular book in the music scene it seems.

Pink Floyd is named after two earlier blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council but only after it turned out the first name "Tea Set" was already in use.
Heaven 17 took their name from a fictional pop group mentioned in Anthony Burgess' novel, "A Clockwork Orange."
Shocking Blue was a Dutch band that scored a world wide in hit with "Venus" in February of 1970. Their name is inspired by an Eric Clapton track called "Electric Blue".

Answer: A poem by William Blake about "Doors of Perception"

In his teens Jim Morrison read a poem by William Blake who wrote, "if the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite." That line affected Morrison a second time when author Aldous Huxley used that same line in his title, "The Doors of Perception".
Robbie Krieger, the Doors guitarist said in the Times: "Jim was set on that name when he and Ray Manzarek decided to put together the band".

There really is an organization that helps persecuted Christians called Open Doors. I very much doubt Jim ever heard of it.
Dors is not a French word and I have no idea how many doors the childhood house of Jim had, but I am pretty sure it was no inspiration.

Answer: A stream in the Rocky Mountains

Originally, Creedence Clearwater Revival (or CCR) was called The Golliwogs up until 1967. According to founding bassist Stu Cook, "Creedence" came from an old friend from Tom Fogerty, Credence Nuball, "Clearwater" from a beer commercial in which the band found a reference to the band's concern for ecology. "Revival" was added as a statement of intent and a re-commitment to their band.

A stream in the Rocky mountains had nothing to do with it and is the odd one out.

Answer: The back of their sisters sewing machine

When Angus and Malcolm Young were looking for a name, they wanted something powerful. A name that symbolized the band's raw energy. That same idea is also found in the name of their first album "High Voltage". It came to them when they saw AC/DC on the back of their sibling's sewing machine. It stands for Alternating Current/Direct Current. It really plugged in.
The bisexuality reason has been a rumor indeed. They were told that AC/DC means "bisexual" in some cultures, but that was well after they started their band.

The Devil answer is allegedly introduced by religious groups who could not quite appreciate AC/DC's type of music. Other suggestions from the same source: Anti-Christ/Devil's-Child(ren), Anti-Christ/Devil-Christ, and After Christ/Devil Comes.

The Australian Aboriginals do have a believe in some kind of heaven, or "time before time", which exists parallel to the normal world. It is called Dreamtime or The Dreaming, but it has nothing to do with the hard rock band.

Answer: True

Billy showed him. He scored several hits like "White Wedding" (1983), "Sweet Sixteen" (1987) and "Cradle of Love" (1990). No idle songs whatsoever.

His wish to be idolized shall have contributed to the name, but the origin lies with the strict school teacher, according to an interview with the blond rock star.

Answer: The Beatles

In the CD booklet for "The Age of Plastic" is stated that it was a joke
between Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes and was actually a pun on "Beatles". Trevor Horn has later added during an interview "It was the most disgusting name I could think of at that time". How very profound.