Ongoing History Daily: Origins of Band Names
Here’s something we haven’t done for a while: Stories behind where bands got their names.
- Early in their career, Coldplay used the name Starfish. At the same time, a fellow university student was looking for a name for his band and had stumbled across a book called Child’s Reflections, Cold Play and thought that “Coldplay” would make a good band name. But then he decided against it, and told Chris Martin he could have it if he wanted.
- Panic at the Disco originates from the lyrics of a song called “Panic” by a fellow emo group called Name Taken. “Panic at the disco” is phrase from the chorus.
- Remember the band Chumbawamba? That came from the sound of 12 African drummers busking on the streets of Paris.
- And Lizzie Grant became Lana Del Rey when she found that in Spanish, it means “the King’s wool.” She like the glamorousness of that, so she adopted it.