First I Was Called... Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Beach Boys

In the 1960s, surfers had a standard outfit or uniform which included shirts worn over t-shirts, with khaki pants; the shirts were called 'Pendletons'. A young band wore these Pendleton Woolen Mills flannel shirts (blue and charcoal plaid) for their early records, and called themselves The Pendletones.

In December, 1961, under the Candix label, the boys received their first box of singles, but Candix had renamed them, The Beach Boys. What would have happened if the band's name was never changed? "God Only Knows"!

Answer: The Beatles

In 1956, a young man from Liverpool named John Lennon formed a rock and roll band called The Quarrymen. John and some schoolmates took the name of the band from the Quarry Bank High School Song. They played at parties, dances and skiffle contests. The following year, a lad named Paul McCartney joined, and, in 1958, a youngster of fourteen, George Harrison, joined.

In 1960, the group changed its name to The Beatles, and we loved them, "yeah,yeah,yeah"!

Answer: Simon and Garfunkel

Many of us older folks used to go to the movies and watch a double feature AND cartoon shorts. From 1940 to 1958, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created "Tom and Jerry", a cat and mouse team who were always playing, um, cat and mouse. Two teenage singers (from Queens, New York) met in sixth grade, in 1953, and began to perform in high school as 'Tom and Jerry'. Tom was Art Garfunkel, while the shorter Paul Simon was Jerry.

After graduating from college, their interest changed somewhat from rock and roll to folk music.

In 1964, they reverted to their real names as 'Simon and Garfunkel', and were on their way "Homeward Bound".

Answer: Pearl Jam

In October 1990, a band from Seattle played their first concert under the name 'Mookie Blaylock'. It seems that a basketball card of New York Nets point guard, Mookie Blaylock, wound up in a case with one of their early demo records, and Eddie Vedder and his band just let the name ride.

However, when they started to gain in popularity, the name became a problem. Soon after, they renamed themselves Pearl Jam, after bassist Jeff Ament suggested the name Pearl, connected with a Neil Young jam. Pearl Jam's first album was called "Ten", the jersey number of...Mookie Blaylock!

Answer: Radiohead

In 1985, some British schoolmates from Oxfordshire formed a band, and got together together after school to rehearse. Their rehearsals couldn't be on a 'school night', so they practiced on Fridays, and took the name 'On a Friday'. When they sent a demo to EMI records, it was suggested that they think of a better moniker.

The group members were all fans of the band Talking Heads so, in 1991, they renamed themselves after a little known 1986 Talking Heads' song called (can you guess?) "Radio Head".

Answer: The Cure

Another group of English middle school students got together in 1973 to play music, with band member Robert Smith calling the group 'The Obelisk', a 'monument' to the band. The members of The Obelisk were Robert Smith, Lol Tolhurst and Mick Dempsey. They morphed into the group'Malice and then Easy Cure, with a punk rock sound. Thinking 'Easy Cure' sounded too "hippyish", they dropped off the 'easy' part and, in 1978, found "The Cure" to becoming a seminal goth band.

Answer: Queen

What can you say about a band called Smile? You might say "Another One Bites the Dust". In 1968, bassist and vocalist, Tim Staffell, adopted the name as part of a college project; at the time the other members were Brian May and Roger Taylor. In 1970, with Staffell gone, Freddie Mercury (under his birth name Farrokh Bulsara) joined the band. Mercury suggested experimenting with new techniques, and changing the band name to something more majestic, and Queen was born.

Answer: Def Leppard

British students Rick Savage, Pete Willis and Tony Kenning (with Joe Elliott shortly after) got together to form Atomic Mass in 1977. They played a gig in a dining hall in a Sheffield school. The moniker did not seem to be very explosive, so Elliott suggested Deaf Leopard (in deference to Led Zeppelin), while Kenning suggested the alternative spelling and, that same year, Def Leppard was born, giving the world punk rock and new wave music.

Their debut album, "On Through the Night", was released in March of 1980.

Answer: Maroon 5

If I mentioned the rock band Kara's Flowers, would you have any idea who I was talking about? While attending Brentwood Middle School in Los Angeles, California, Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick got together, in 1978, to form Kara's Flowers, the name based on a schoolmate who had a crush on them.

But the group had no "moves like Jagger" so, in 2001, the band introduced a fifth member and, inspired by the fictional band 'Yellow 5', began calling themselves Maroon 5.

Answer: Green Day

In 1986, at just fourteen years old, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt started playing gigs in East Bay, California, under the name Sweet Children. Without "Warning", and with the addition of Tre Cool, in 1989 they morphed into the punk rock, hugely successful band, Green Day.

The new name was based on one of their earlier songs, which discusses the groups' affection for cannabis. In 1994, the song "Dookie" debuted, with its major success making Green Day a household name. They reasserted their popularity in 2004, with the rock opera "American Idiot".

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.