Tags

, , , , , ,

Blame Echo & The Bunnymen. They started it.

Hubby and I were listening to the radio during a trip last night and “Sugar Kisses” by Echo & The Bunnymen came on. We got to wondering what happened to Echo & The Bunnymen. Checking just now, I’ve found an up-t0-date website for the band and they just won the SXSW Web Awards Best Music Website for 2010.

Hearing the name Echo & The Bunnymen, the band name Hootie & the Blowfish came to mind, which somehow led us to trying to come up with a list of band names that followed the format of Name + & the + Plural Band Descriptor. Our brains were laggy, but we did manage to think of the following:

Big Head Todd & the Monsters

Paul Revere & the Raiders

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

Katrina & the Waves

Prince & the Revolution

Huey Lewis & the News

Little Ed & the Blues Imperials

Siouxsie & the Banshees

George Thorogood & the [Deleware] Destroyers

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Iggy & the Stooges

Bob Marley & the Wailers (we thought it’d be funnier as the “Whalers :) )

Buddy Holly & the Crickets

Alvin & the Chipmunks

Hans Blix & the Weapons Inspectors (a local band)

Morris Day & the Time

Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention

Hubby thought there was a group that ended in “& the Rockets,” but he couldn’t come up with the beginning.

I found Anson & the Rockets and Jocko & the Rockets online.

I had a sneakin’ suspicion that this patterning of band names was indicative of a particular era, like the 1950s or 1960s. When I conducted a Google search, I discovered various lists of the most popular music by decades and found that, sure enough, the 1960s seemed to be rife with “& the” band names including …

Bill Haley & the Comets

Charlie Ryan & the Timberlane Riders

Rochell & the Candles

Donnie & the Dreamers

Little Caesar & the Romans

Sunny & the Sunglows

Cannibal & the Headhunters

Big Brother & the Holding Company

Bull & the Matadors

and Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys (how’s that for creative?).

The 1950s had a bunch; and the 1970s and 1980s had a few, including Paul Humphrey & the Cool Aid Chemists, Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids, Bruce Hornsby & the Range, Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine, Kool & the Gang, and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

The 1990s saw hip-hoppers taking the “& the” band name structure, with Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch, Heavy D & the Boyz, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.

The 2000s, well … the “& the” band name construction seemed to have lost its luster in the 2000s. Admittedly, it was hard to find a decent list of even the hit songs for the years 2000 to 2009, but each one I checked failed to deliver an “& the” band. (Here’s one list I found for the 2000s.)

The decade lists I linked to above are all most popular song lists, so they are by no means comprehensive lists of band names. Here’s your chance to get in the act. Do you know of a band with “& the” as part of its name that has not been mentioned in this post? If so, let me know in the comments.

Methinks this would make another good theme for my brother’s radio show …. What say you, Mr. Knuckles?

Advertisement