At what point in your musical journey do you earn the right to be simply acknowledged by your first name?
Is it all to do with marketing or is it fame? Perhaps it’s more to do with your birth name.
Madonna, Prince, Bono are all recognisable by their singular and exclusive moniker – but given some of the labourious titles some of our greatest musicians and pop icons have been lumbered with – is it any wonder they go out of their way to head straight to the deed poll office.
Alice Cooper— Vincent Furnier
Elvis Costello— Declan Patrick McManus
Gary Glitter— Paul Francis Gadd
Engelbert Humperdinck — Arnold George Dorsey
Elton John — Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Marilyn Manson — Brian Warner
Freddy Mercury— Farouk Pluto Bulsara
Cher— Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre
Gene Simmons— Chaim Witz
Sid Vicious — John Simon Richie
Bono — Paul David Hewson
Bobby Darin – Walden Waldo Robert Cassotto
Snoop Dogg – Cordazer Calvin Broadus Jr.
Herb (Peaches & Herb) – Haer Feemster
Adam Ant – Stuart Leslie Goddard
David Bowie – David Robert Hayward Stenton Jones
Irene Cara – Irene Escalera
. . . and then you get the legendary 50′s idol Sam Cooke who, just to throw his fans off the scent decided to simply add an ‘e’ to his surname, in what was thought, no doubt at the time, to marketing coup.
Any wonder his PR guy was back pumping gas after Sam’s untimely demise.
Vincent Furnier … what a pisser!
Not sure why Arnold George Dorsey chose the ridiculous albeit unique name of Engelbert Humperdinck though..
Sir Reginald Kenneth Dwight certainly has a nice ring to it…
Farouk Pluto Bulsara … WTF! hehehe
Walden Waldo … Classic!
Great post from the good doctor.
Hey Sarge . . .
The one positive I guess Engelbert Humperdinck can take from all that (as he lies back casually sipping fluffy ducks somewhere in the caribbean no doubt) is that it’s unlikely fans will be inclinded to name their sons after him – or perhaps they have . . .
Wow! I got a lot of great baby name ideas out of this post. Here’s what I came up with for my first born son:
Cordazer Pluto McManus Hansen.
He’s destined to be famous and change his name to Bob Smith.
Hey Natalina
Nice!
BTW – ever heard of Thomas John Woodward?
You might know him better as singer – Tom Jones – so there’s certainly currency in simplicity!
Add to that – the fact the David Bowie (who – for a short time officially changed his name to Ziggy Stardust – was born David Robert Jones – but didn’t want to be confused with Davey Jones of Monkees fame) – hence ‘Bowie’.
Stay well
I kind of find the whole one name pop star thing a tad on the wanky side. Although most that are known simmply by their first names are so famous nobody could mistake you you were talking about.
Now, why on earth did Elvis Costello change his name? Declan McManus sounds much sexier!
Poor old David Bowie’s son got stuck with the name Zowie until he reached his teens and changed it himself to Joey. So was it Zowie Bowie, Zowie Stardust or Zowie Jones? And now is he Joey Bowie (which isn’t a great deal better) or Joey Jones? I’ve given myself a headache.