Artists with name discrepancies

You may have to be a bit of a nut, like me, to care about, or even notice, these kinds of things (maybe it's my perfectionism kicking in)

When I say name discrepancies, I am referring to artists whose names seem to change slightly over the years

Let me start off with an example...The Mamas and the Papas.

In 1966, they released their debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears under the name: The Mama's and the Papa's. I know this because that name is both on the original US LP cover, and is on the original label for the LP.




Now that it all fine and dandy until you look at the next LP they released, also in 1966, and look at what their names were then...




Did you notice something?

THE NAME OF THE GROUP CHANGED!

Not drastically, mind you, but nonetheless it did changed. From The Mama's and the Papa's to The Mamas & the Papas

They dropped the apostrophes and substituted the "and" for an ampersand!!

WHO ARE THESE PHONIES??

Who made the decision to drop the apostrophes and substitute the "and" for "&"? Why was this decision made? Did the group approve of the name change? Was it done behind their backs?

I want answers...I want an explanation. Ever since I first noticed this, I can't sleep at night...I've been drinking much more heavily and been lashing out on people for no reason (not really)

But seriously, does this bug anybody else?

What are some other examples of this phenomenon?

 

Bee Gees

One album I have has added 'The", all others just say Bee Gees, as they should. Was disappointed to see THE BEE GEES written large on the sculpture at Bee Gees Way (at their old suburb in Brisbane).

 

Flamin Groovies added the apostrophe in the mid 70s when they went 'powerpop' with the Shake Some Action album and became Flamin' Groovies. I get a bit itchy when I see reissues of their earlier stuff with an added apostrophe!

 

And the Masters Apprentices didn't have an apostrophe in Master's until their record label put one in on the front cover of their first album. Seemed to stick after that!

 

Good thing they removed those apostrophes, because it's incorrect punctuation.

 

Duran Duran were Duranduran on 1988's Big Thing and on the hit "I Don't Want Your Love". They then reverted to Duran Duran on the next album.

 

Keith Richard
Keith Richards

 

It was Mike + The Mechanics on their first two (hit) albums, but Mike & The Mechanics on the next (flop) album (1991's Word Of Mouth). I always use the + not the & for them (as does their recent compilation).

 

Smashing Pumpkins became The Smashing Pumpkins from Mellon Collie onwards.
Belle and Sebastian are credited as Belle & Sebastian on their third and fourth albums.
Simon & Garfunkel are credited as Simon and Garfunkel on the cover of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and Bridge Over Troubled Water.
A 1994 compilation is called The Very Best of The Eagles. They're just called Eagles and are credited as such on every other album.

 

Johnny Cougar AKA John Cougar AKA John Cougar Mellancamp AKA John Mellancamp

 

I have to laugh at Ryan Adams' stuff, especially when he got into his Cardinals era. The distinctions seem arbitrary and shift for no reason. For instance, Easy Tiger was credited only to Ryan Adams, and so was III/IV, even though both are Ryan Adams & The Cardinals records, really. And Cardinology is credited to simply The Cardinals, even though it's fully a Ryan Adams album like those others.

Prince also has some pretty arbitrary distinctions between solo and band work. And the damn "symbol" era messes things up a bit too.

Also, the ways in which Frank Zappa's bands were labelled get pretty confusing.

 

Bowie dropped David around 1974.

 

The Moody Blues released their first single as The Moodyblues and also spelled the name of the song funny, "Loose Your Money (But Don't Loose Your Mind)."

 

Someone realised the error and changed it for the next release - simple as that.

 

Ryuichi Sakamoto was spelled Riuichi on B-2 Unit and a few Western singles in the early 80s (most notably Forbidden Colours), as the result of an incorrect transliteration. He was always Ryuichi since his first album (which predates YMO). On the Love And Hate single (1994) he just went by his surname Sakamoto, but reverted afterwards.

 

I imagine the record company copped all-out thermonuclear heck from Glenn Frey for that one.

 

Ricky Nelson grew up and became Rick. Does that count?

 

There was a whole thread on that in off-topic just a few days ago.

 

Deacon John became erm, John Deacon (Queen's first album)
Ulrich Roth (of the Scorpions & Electric Sun) became Uli Jon Roth on later releases.

 

The Nuggets II box set listed Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" as being by Van Morrison.

 

Jim McGuinn became Roger McGuinn.
A bit confusing to a kid reading the liner notes on the Byrds LPs in the pre-Internet era.

 

Jim McGuinn became known as Roger McGuinn in 1967 but legally only changed his middle name to Roger. EDIT: you beat me to it lightbulb

 

To their credit, The Go-Go's have maintained their incorrect punctuation throughout their career.

 

Klaus Meine was Meiner on the vinyl Lonesome Crow album I had but just checking the Japanese mini-lp cd it seems they've since changed it (or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me!!)

Tony Harnell of the Norweigen band TNT was listed as Tony Hansen on their second cd "Knights Of The New Thunder"

 

Jon Bon Jovi was John Bongiovi on his pre Mercury recordings