More Former Names Of Famous Bands Quiz

Answer: Heart

The answer is Heart. Ann and Nancy Wilson were both members of Daybreak. They released only two 45 RPM records. The 45s were mistakenly credited to Ann Wilson and the Daybreaks.
Ann has performed in many bands over the years. There was The Mode in 1966, The Viewpoints from 1966-1967, The Rapunzel in 1968, White Seal in 1969, A Boy And His Dog 1969, and Proof in 1969. Then we have Daybreak in 1969, Hocus Pocus, Heart, Ann Wilson and Heart (without Nancy), and the Lovemongers. They did reform as Heart again with Nancy back in the band. There were a few other affiliated bands along the way but neither Ann or Nancy were members. Nancy Wilson officially joined Heart in 1974.
The song titles of the 45 RPM records that Ann Wilson and the Daybreaks (Daybreak) released are: "I'm Gonna Drink My Hurt Away" b/w "Through Eyes Of Glass" and "Wonder How I Managed" b/w "Standin' Watchin' You". "Through Eyes Of Glass" was written by Ann. She seems to recall that she had a bit of help from Nancy.

Answer: Steely Dan

It's Steely Dan. The core of Steely Dan, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, met one another at Bard College in Annandale-On Hudson, New York in 1967. At the time, Donald Fagen was a piano player and while he was walking through the halls to class one day, he heard someone playing the blues on a guitar. There sat Walter Becker in the student lounge playing his red Epiphone guitar. He found that he had to go introduce himself and as they spoke he found they they had the same musical interests and wry sense of humor. Fagen and Becker went through a variety of band names. They were The Bad Rock Group, Leather Canary, and The Don Fagen Trio.
At college they both met someone who later sat in on drums with Leather Canary. It was Chevy Chase (the comedian), from the band Chamaeleon Church, which he played keyboards and drums for. They considered Chase to be an excellent drummer who had "absolute pitch".
At one point Fagen and Becker joined and toured with the band Jay And The Americans. The got $100.00 for each performance at the start. The manager of the band then lowered their pay to $50.00. Jay Black, who was the singer for Jay And The Americans, never quite took to Becker and Fagen. He would refer to them as "the Manson and Starkweather of rock 'n' roll". Manson meant Charles Manson and Starkweather meant serial killer Charles Starkweather.
In 1972 Steely Dan released their first single "Dallas", b/w "Sail the Waterway". They also released their first LP titled "Can't Buy A Thrill".

Answer: Ten Years After

The answer is Ten Years After. It was Alvin Lee who was in the band Vince Marshall And The Squarecaps. He eventually went on to sing and play lead guitar for Ten Years After. Unfortunately Alvin Lee passed away in 2013.
After Vince Marshall And The Squarecaps, Alvin Lee went on to several other bands. In 1958 he joined Alan Upton And The Jailbreakers as their lead guitar player. He actually got his first "real" job with them which lasted ten minutes and was between movies at a drive-in movie theater. After that they became the following bands: Ivan Jay And The Jaymen, The Jaycats, The Jaybirds I and The Jaybirds II. By 1966 they decided they needed a more modern sounding name so they briefly called themselves Blues Trip. That same year they got a job playing at the Marquee Club in London and played under the band name of Blues Yard. Also that same year they officially became Ten Years After. They came across the name while looking at local radio listings.
Ten Years After began to gain fame after playing at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Alvin Lee's ability to play the guitar became legendary. Ten Years After released about 18 studio and live LPs and about 21 compilation LPs. I found the LP information in Wikipedia.

Answer: Styx

The answer is Styx which began in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. They started out with three guys. Two of the band members were the brothers Chuck and John Panozzo. The third guy was their neighbor, Dennis DeYoung.
Chuck left Tradewinds for a year to go to seminary school. In the time he was gone the band replaced him with guitarist Tom Nardini. When he returned, he rejoined the band as their bass player since they had a lead guitar player. Dennis played accordion and was brought in to replace their first accordion player, and John was the drummer. Dennis switched to organ and piano from accordion in 1964. In 1965 they changed their name to TW4 because another band came along with the name The Trade Winds. TW4 played high schools and fraternity parties. In 1969 John Curulewski, who was a college pal, joined the band as guitarist because Tom Nardini had left. In 1970, James Young who was a hard edged lead guitarist, joined the band which made them a five piece. In 1972 TW4 was signed to the Wooden Nickel label and had to find a new name for their band. The only one they could all agree on was Styx and only because, according to Dennis, it was "the only one that none of us hated". Initially they played at school gyms but had graduated to colleges and small clubs by 1973.
Their soon to be hit song "Lady" had already been out for two years in 1975 and went nowhere until a DJ at WLS radio in Chicago came across the song, played it and decided he really liked it. Because of him, Styx hit the big time. He started playing the song regularly and before long it was a big hit locally. By March of 1975 it reached number six on the U.S. Billboard Top 40 chart.

Answer: Blue Oyster Cult

Albert Bouchard, Allen Lanier, and Donald Roeser (AKA "Buck Dharma") from the 1967 - 1971 lineup of Soft White Underbelley evolved into Blue Oyster Cult in 1971. Eric Bloom from Soft White Underbelly's second lineup joined Blue Oyster Cult with them. Bass player Andrew Winters who was also from their second lineup was fired but replaced by the brother of Albert Bouchard named Joe. Joe went on to Blue Oyster Cult with the rest of the guys.

These five guys were B.O.C.'s longest and most successful lineup. Through the years until 2012 the band had a total of 16 different lineups! Before Soft White Underbelly was decided upon as their name, someone ridiculously suggested that they call themselves The Knife Wielding Scumbags. Between Soft White Underbelly and B.O.C. the band briefly went by the names Oaxaca, Room, The Santos Sisters, and the Stalk-Forrest Group. B.O.C. wanted to be the U.S. answer to the U.K.'s Black Sabbath.

They did not have that heavy rock sound like Black Sabbath but they did have an excellent hard rock sound.

The songs they are most noted for are "Godzilla", "Burnin' For You" and "Fear The Reaper".

Answer: Chicago

The answer to this question is Chicago. All of the answers were bands that had horn sections. Ides Of March were most famous for their song "Vehicle", Chase for their song "Get It On", and Blood, Sweat, And Tears for many songs. A few are "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "Spinning Wheel", "And When I Die", and a few others.
According to band member Robert Lamm, prior to going by the name The Big Thing, the band briefly used The Missing Links as a name. At times the band would get complaints about their name The Big Thing because it could also be misconstrued as a name for a male body part. When they needed to they would temporarily change their name to The Big Sounds to alleviate that problem.
The Big Thing had the baritone voiced Terry Kath as their vocalist but they needed a tenor. They managed to get some guy named Peter Cetera from a religious band named the Exceptions. His vocals literally blew their minds so they had to have him in their band. Apparently Peter agreed. The Exceptions released several singles and in 1966 they released a five song, seven inch EP titled "Rock 'N' Roll Mass". This EP was one of the earliest contemporary Jesus music recordings. The song titles and lyrics were extremely religious but the music was in the garage genre and is considered to be quite excellent.
In 1968 The Big Thing changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority. Shortly thereafter though, they were forced to change it when the actual Transit Authority in the city of Chicago threatened to sue. Their first LP which was released in 1969 was a double album and was titled "Chicago Transit Authority". For their second LP their name was permanently changed to Chicago.
The "Chicago Transit Authority" LP was an underground hit. That same year (1969) the LP broke onto the U.S. Billboard Top LPs chart and peaked at number 17. It remained on the chart for 148 weeks until the end of 1972.

Answer: Kiss

The answer is Kiss. In 1970 a band named Rainbow was formed. The following year they changed their name to Wicked Lester. The core of the band was Gene Klein and Stanley Eisen who later went by the names Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Wicked Lester recorded one album which the Epic Records label paid for.

When the people at Epic heard the album they thought it was extremely poor and would not release it. Rainbow did manage to play some shows on the east coast. Wicked Lester also performed out east but only on two separate occasions. In 1972 Gene and Paul were looking to form a new band.

They saw an ad in "Rolling Stone" magazine put there by a drummer named Peter Criss. He auditioned and they liked him so a new version of Wicked Lester was born.

In 1973 Ace Frehley auditioned and was also welcomed into the band. Shortly thereafter these four guys came up with Kiss as a new name for their band. They performed as Kiss for the very first time on January 30, 1973 and wore very little makeup.

They played out twice more with little makeup but by their March ninth and tenth, 1973 shows, they came out wearing the makeup that became iconic for the four Kiss members.

Answer: Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper is the answer. His real name is Vincent Damon Furnier. In 1964 he was in a band called The Earwigs. Alice was only 16 years old at the time. That year there was a local letterman's talent show which he really wanted to take part in. So he and some of his cross country team members got together and called themselves The Earwigs. They actually won the contest and all they did was to lip synch to Beatles songs while dressed like the Beatles. Not one of those guys knew how to play any kind of musical instrument. They did learn how to after buying some instruments from a pawn shop. At this point they now called themselves The Spiders and started playing around town quite a bit.
Between 1965 and 1966 The Spiders released two 45 RPM records which are now extremely rare. In 1967 after they had graduated high school The Spiders started to travel a bit to play concerts. This is when the began calling themselves The Nazz. As The Nazz they released one 45 RPM which is also quite rare. These three 45 RPM records were reissued and can now be purchased cheaply.
In 1968 Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz so Vincent and the guys decided to change their name. This is when they began to call themselves Alice Cooper. Vincent had suggested that they change their name to one reminiscent of the reputed axe murderer Lizzie Borden so that's where the name came from.
Alice Cooper eventually wrote a book titled "Golf Monster". In it he explains that the name Alice Cooper "conjured up an image of a little girl with a lollipop in one hand, and a butcher knife in another." That's how the name was chosen.
In 1969 they released their first LP titled "Pretties For You". It didn't sell very well but it was the beginning of the band's rise to super stardom. In 1972 Vincent Damon Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper.

Answer: Kansas

The band is Kansas. Kerry Livgren formed the first incarnation of Kansas in 1970. They formed in Topeka, Kansas and were the result of two bands merging. Those bands were Saratoga and White Clover. Guitarist/keyboardist Kerry Livgren came from Saratoga and drummer Phil Ehart and bassist Dave Hope came from White Clover. There were other members from both bands but these three guys were the cream of the crop and would be in the most successful and well known incarnation of Kansas for a long time to come.
Kansas broke up that same year (1970) and the guys from White Clover reverted back to that name. The guys from Saratoga kept the name Kansas and added a drummer, bass player, and a saxophone/flute player. This group of guys became the second incarnation of Kansas or Kansas II.
Phil Ehart and Dave Hope hooked up with keyboardist/vocalist Jeff Glixman and guitarist/vocalist Warren Eisenstein. They formed the second incarnation of White Clover. Soon they added a second keyboardist/vocalist named Steve Walsh.
Glixman and Eisenstein decided to leave White Clover II so guitarist Rich Williams and violinist Robbie Steinhardt joined the band. At this point there was no doubt that Kansas II was headed for a breakup. So in 1973 Kerry Livgren was asked by Phil Ehart to come back to White Clover II. With Kansas II on the outs he accepted the invitation as hard as it was to do it. That was the end of Kansas II.
Now, Kerry Livgren, Phil Ehart, Robbie Steinhardt, Dave Hope, Rich Williams, and Steve Walsh decided to do away with the name White Clover and became Kansas again. This was the third incarnation of Kansas and by far the most successful.
The band had recorded a demonstration LP before Kerry Livgren was with them. Don Kirshner got his hands on it and loved what he heard. He then had the vice president of his Kirshner Records label check out Kansas playing a live concert. This V.P. knew they were something special when he heard them play and recommended to Don to give Kansas a contract. He did and Kansas went on to become a major success. The Gimlets, The Mellotones, and The Reasons Why were all bands that Kerry Livgren was a member of in his younger days.

Answer: Reg Dwight

Reg Dwight/Elton John! The Bread And Beer Band was a group of the best studio musicians in England. In 1969 at the time he was in the Bread And Beer Band and the Corvettes, his name was Reg Dwight. Later on his name was changed to Elton John. The Bread And Beer Band did release a UK only, 45 RPM record. They recorded an LP but it was never released. One copy does exist in acetate form though. The 45 is rare but not extremely expensive.
All of the Bread And Beer Band's music is instrumental. All of the songs on the original acetate were psychedelic jazz renditions of other artists' songs. Reg also recorded an album circa 1970 titled "Piano Goes Pop by Reg Dwight". It consisted of 20 cover songs. Reg was also briefly a member of the U.K. band Bluesology who he recorded two 45 Rpm records with.
On June 6, 1969 Elton John released his first LP in the UK. It was titled "Empty Sky". It wasn't released in the U.S. until January, 1975 and it had a different cover photograph. Elton's career has spanned five decades as of 2014 and he has sold over 300 million records during that time.